Buda Family Archive

collection Buda Family Archive
authors Helena Suchara
starring Jacek Buda; Zygmunt Buda; Józef Cyrankiewicz; Władysław Gomułka; Bogdan Sobol; Janina Sobol; Łucja Stafisz; Franciszek Suchara
length 0:13:45
country Poland
locations Warsaw, Poland 
year 1968
format 16 mm
color color
signature PAFD 0037 051
description

Zygmunt Buda was born in Poznań in 1924 and was interested in photography since his childhood. From 1941, he worked in the Poznań photographic company Foto-Stewner, founded by Ernest Stewner. After the end of the war, he worked as a photographer in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, from which, in the 50s, he was dismissed for political incorrectness. From the 60s, he worked in the Film Services Department at the corner of Marszałkowska and Krucza streets in Warsaw. Zygmunt recorded films with a business camera with a 16-millimeter tape and a private SANYO camera with an 8-millimeter tape, which he received as a gift from a family living in the USA. His sons, Jacek and Marek, as well as the next generations of the Buda family, also became enthusiasts of filming family life.
The film was made on September 8, 1968 during the nationwide harvest festival at the 10th-Anniversary Stadium in Warsaw by Helena Suchara, a professor of pedagogy and an adoptive aunt of the Buda Family. She lives in Detroit, USA. Zygmunt Buda with his son (Jacek), his sister-in-law (Janina Sobol), her husband (Bogdan), his mother-in-law (Łucja Stafisz) and Franciszek Suchara leave the block of flats and then wait for the tram at the stop. Folk dance groups perform in front of the audience gathered in the stands of the stadium. Farmers solemnly bring wreaths with crops to the pitch and give gifts to the government delegation – Władysław Gomułka and Józef Cyrankiewicz. The family watches the performances. Zygmunt records the event with a Sanyo camera. After the official part, folk bands perform again in front of the audience. 
On that day, in the sector opposite the places occupied by Helena and her family, Ryszard Siwiec set himself on fire as part of a protest against the intervention of Warsaw Pact forces in Czechoslovakia. This dramatic gesture, completely omitted by the media of the time, was immortalized in the film by Zygmunt Buda. 

(AT)

keywords harvest festival  holiday  fun  dance  folk dance  dancers  band  performance  crops  farmers  wreaths  bread  folklore  camera  crowd 
source of funding Polish Film Institute