Moving over to the World Cinema competition: From Poland, ALL THESE SLEEPLESS NIGHTS, Michał Marczak’s snapshot of twentysomethings living life to the fullest.
Festival Section:
World Cinema Documentary Competition
Sundance Program Description:
Many of us know the freedom of our twenties – unfettered by responsibilities or mortality, inventing ourselves in the rush of the moment. ALL THESE SLEEPLESS NIGHTS viscerally summons that feeling, chronicling a Warsaw summer when art school classmates Kris and Michał resolve to experience life to the limit. Who will they meet, and what will they discover about relationships and themselves? What existential realities will thwart them?
After Kris breaks up with his long-time girlfriend, anything seems possible. He and Michał, handsome and wide-eyed, roam the metropolis at night, floating from party to party and encounter to encounter. As they chain-smoke, drink, and dance with abandon to pulsing DJ rhythms in city squares and makeshift clubs, big ideas are as palpable as the romance and sex in the air. Filmmaker Michał Marczak paints a picture of a Warsaw suspended between its traumatic past and a future powered by a new generation bursting with energy. At the same time, his fluid, dreamlike shooting and editing style, reminiscent of the French New Wave’s spirit of discovery and iconoclasm, reminds us that this story of youthful adventure, like a picaresque novel, is timeless.
Some Background:
Director/Producer: Michał Marczak
This is Marczak’s third feature, following his acclaimed AT THE EDGE OF RUSSIA and FUCK FOR FOREST. It is his first project at Sundance, and has previously received support from the Sundance Institute’s Documentary Film Program.
Producers: Marta Golba, Julia Nottingham, Lucas Ochoa, and Thomas Benski
Endorfina Studio’s Golba previously produced the feature 15 CORNERS OF THE WORLD, which picked up an award at Locarno. The remaining producers represent London’s Pulse Films. CEO Benski and Head of Film Ochoa both produced Sundance alumni WHO IS DAYANI CRISTAL? (2013) and SHUT UP AND PLAY THE HITS (2012) and executive produced 20,000 DAYS ON EARTH (2014). Separately, Benski also executive produced Sundance short film alum DAYTIMER. This marks Head of Documentary Nottingham’s first Sundance credit after producing the recent feature THE POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS.
Editor: Dorota Wardeszkiewicz
Wardeszkiewicz has cut both of Marczak’s previous films.
Why You Should Watch:
Like in Marczak’s previous work, the talented young director blends together fiction and nonfiction to tell his story. The result is an at times hyper-real representation of his protagonists’ adventures, with the viewer immersed within their nocturnal Warsaw alongside them.
For Sundance screening dates and times, click the link in the first paragraph.
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