RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
A1 Klejsa, Konrad
A1 Dondzik, Michał
A1 Grzechowiak, Jarosław
T1 Phoenix Burning: The Collapse of the Fiction Film Studio and the Educational Film Studio in Łódź in the Early 90s
JF Iluminace
YR 2017
VO 29
IS 3
SP 27
OP 47
DO 10.58193/ilu.1529
UL https://iluminace.cz/en/artkey/ilu-201703-0003.php
AB In the early 1990s, the system of financing Polish film productions based on subsidies from the Ministry of Culture budget collapsed. This resulted in huge financial problems for the film studios located in Łódź: WFF (Wytwórnia Filmów Fabularnych - Feature Film Studio) and WFO (Wytwórnia Filmów Oświatowych - Educational Film Studio). This paper analyses multiple layers of that crisis, including its origins as well as various contradictory ideas from the period as to how the assets and heritage of film institutions situated in the city once called the 'Polish Hollywood' should be managed. These attempts - undertaken simultaneously by the Film Industry Committee in Warsaw and on the local level by the management at both studios - were often contradictory and included efforts to merge both entities into one state-funded institution as well as striving toward their full privatisation. The findings are based on examinations of the local press, archival research, as well as in-depth interviews with employees in the audio-visual sector.