Rudzienko

A stunning work of slow cinema by Sharon Lockhart, a major contemporary artist working between cinema and art. Born from Lockhart’s extended work in Poland, the film is a participatory documentary with young women, in its process inspired by the pedagogy of Janusz Korczak, who insisted children be given autonomy and voice.

Rudzienko was shot over three years in collaboration with the residents of the Youth Center for Sociotherapy in Rudzienko, Poland. Building on the relationship she established in 2009 with Milena, a young Polish girl who Lockhart befriended during the production of her film Podwórka and who later moved to the center, Lockhart conceived of a series of workshops to empower the young women.

The group worked together to develop dialog and movements to be enacted on-camera based on their collective activities. The resulting film features a range of conversations, from the philosophical to everyday teenage concerns, and depicts actions both theatrical and mundane that voice the girls’ rich humanity.

The Polish-language film proposes an innovative approach to the relationship between image and language by offsetting the spoken conversations with their written translations, creating a space of quiet reflection.

Programme section: Between Film and Art
Original title: Rudzienko | Year: 2016 | Duration: 53′
Country: Poland, United States | Language: Polish | Subtitles: English
Director: Sharon Lockhart | Production: Ola Knychalska, Sharon Lockhart, Wojtek Markowski | Cast:  Julia Barbarewicz, Weronika Buła, Aleksandra Ciechomska, Katarzyna Drozd, Małgorzata Jańczyk | Cinematography: Yori Fabian, Colin Trenbeath | Sound: Zofia Moruś, Ola Pniak | Editing: May Rigler

FESTIVALS & AWARDS (SELECTION) 

Berlinale, Forum Expanded, 2017 – World premiere | Doc Lisboa, 2017 |  CAC Vilnus, 2019

DIRECTOR’S BIO 

Sharon Lockhart creates film, installations, photography, painting and sculpture that explore landscapes and those that inhabit them, leading a practice that builds upon deep, long-term commitments to her collaborators and subjects. She has been the subject of solo exhibitions at major international institutions and been included in biennials among which the 57th Venice Biennale (2017, Polish Pavilion); her films have been presented in the New York Film Festival, Vienna International Film Festival, FIDMarseille, Berlin International Film Festival and Sundance Film Festival, among others. Lockhart lives and works in Los Angeles.