Ethics from above

The space - before the screening 

 Jean Pierre Lasota-Hirszowicz 

about his friend Marek Siemek

"The View from a Cathedral" is mostly about friendship, loyalty and ethics.  Three main characters are philosophers Marek Siemek and Bronisław Baczko and astrophysicist Jean-Pierre Lasota-Hirszowicz. 

In a magical/ serendipitous turn of events the first public screening of the film took place in the astronomical observatory in Olsztyn.   The images were projected high above the viewers on a surface for the sky and the stars.

Later there was a panel on philosophy and film.  Philosophy represented - Dariusz Barbaszyński, Ph.D.,  film studies - Aleksandra Drzał-Sierocka, Ph.D., history - Artur Sobiela, Ph.D.,  film practice - yours truly.  The discussion was moderated by Magdalena Drozdowicz.

 the panel

the audience

The location seemed so natural and the subject discussed so fundamental  ("how can we...?", "is it possible...?", "why Siemek?") that only afterwards I realized the connection between the screen presence of the renown astronomer and the venue.  Furthermore it is prof. Lasota who in the film directly voices ethical concerns.

Siemek was a Kantian philosopher and so the statement "starry heavens above me and and the moral law within me" got a pretty appropriate framing due to the choice of the venue.  

Big thank you to Dorota Sepczyńska, Ph.D. who conceived and organized the event.  

• “Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe, the more often and steadily we reflect upon them: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me. I do not seek or conjecture either of them as if they were veiled obscurities or extravagances beyond the horizon of my vision; I see them before me and connect them immediately with the consciousness of my existence.”  -  Immanuel Kant

the panel photo by Wioletta Mądzelewska 

More of Siemek

Marek Żmiejewski talks about his friend, prof. Marek Siemek

Initially I posted on youtube a few interviews about Marek Siemek - I thought they would make a supplementary material for "The View from a Cathedral".   In the process of working with them however, I changed my mind.

I have made the interviews already online private and stopped uploading the new ones.  Out of the interviews I gathered in the process of making the film I have decided to cut another project, a companion of sort to "The View from a Cathedral."  It will most likely be named "Beyond a Cathedral".   Stay tuned. 

The View from a Cathedral - on VOD

The documentary is now available as VOD on Vimeo:

THE VIEW FROM A CATHEDRAL

VOD English version (only English subtitles)

and its version with only Polish subtitles:

WIDOK Z KATEDRY
VOD Polish version

The View from a Cathedral - 2018

Stanislaw Elsner-Zaluski as prof. Marek Siemek

For some time I've been toying with the idea of blogging about a progress of one of my productions.  This hasn't happened yet, but several updates regarding "The View from a Cathedral" actually show a process of finishing a project.  It's been years (budget, budget, budget) and finally the final version is done.  I am beginning to seek exposure to this documentary and will be posting the results.

"The View from a Cathedral" (53 min.) explores the drama of prof. Marek Siemek (1942-2011), a Polish philosopher highly esteemed in Germany (a specialist in Transcendental Idealism) caught in the torment of loyalty, friendship and betrayal that resulted from the 1968 anti-Semitic purge in Poland.

In Polish, German and Italian - with English subtitles. 

more info at http://www.directing.com/cathedral.html    

Bronislaw Baczko

Bronisław Baczko 

I was privileaged to meet Bronislaw Baczko while working on a documentary.  Here is a small part of the interview from that encounter.    

Love and philosophy

The flyer of the tenth edition of the Philosophical Film Festival, Krakow.  This year the subject was love.

Juxtaposition of these two cathegories: philosophy and love is a huge challenge.

Prof. Marek Siemek, the hero of my (still in the works) documentary "The View from A Cathedral" astutely noticed that the ethics of love stops where the ethics of law begins.

THE VIEW FROM A CATHEDRAL

Stanislaw Elsner-Zaluski as Marek Siemek
in
"The View from a Cathedral"
formerly "The Department of Historical Necessity"

The Marek Siemek documentary has been trimmed down to 85 minutes and acquired the new title.   „The View from a Cathedral” encompasses the three territories the film travels through: the visual, the metaphorical and the academic. 

The search for the title that would fit was long and tortuous not only to me but also to those who were close to the production.  Thank you all! 

Various titles were considered: at first I pitched the story as „The Philosopher who died twice”.  Then I cut a trailer for „The Department of Historical Necessity”. Then came Aufhebung, Reason is free, freedom is reasonable, Honoris Causa, A Philosopher and the nation of devils.  And plenty more that I will save for later.  No, not for another change.  For a brand new project, I mean. 

What’s important for now is that The View from a Cathedral has entered the final post-production stage.  

93% and philosophy

"Aufhebung"
Professors: Wolfram Hogrebe, Maciek Kaniowski 

and "Marek Siemek" (Stanisław Elsner-Załuski)

According to some psychologist studies 93% of our communication is not word based.  Bad news since a film about a philosopher and his way of looking at the world has to be based on words.  Or does it? 

The hero of "Aufhebung" is a champion of reason philosophically expressing itself first through words.  The "second" expression of philosophy",  the true destination of Siemek's thinking, is society.  

How to maneuver between the two expressions?

Showing the interaction between the social and the philosophical can push he project to become educational.  Presenting concepts alone can turn it into a lecture.  Having a bunch of people talk about idiosyncrasies of the hero seems a cheap way out.  And on top of it all there is the specter of "93%" which means that even if there is plenty of talk, it's not the talk itself that makes or breaks scenes, sequences and the project itself. 

The present version of the film runs 90 minutes. Recently I cut it down from 2,5 hours. There are talking heads and staged segments.  There are emotions and ideas.  Balancing between them is the key challenge of this stage of the production.    

A man on the street interview

It was during one of my visits to the old country:  I interviewed this man in January 1990 in Warsaw, just outside a building where the last congress of the Polish Communist Party was held.    It was a rushed exchange and I did not take the man's name. 

He was clearly a well educated, bright and quite angry fellow with a fabulous insight.  He could be a sociologist/historian.  But could be also a representative of a different trade.   Difficult to say since a lot of Poles are quite savvy discussing ethics and politics.

I am considering using this interview in the "Aufhebung", the Marek Siemek documentary and would really like to find this man.  

Does anyone know how to get in touch with him?   

The Siemek Project Update

Stanislaw Elsner-Zaluski as Marek Siemek in "Aufhebung"

The Marek Siemek film got a new title. It’s no longer “The Department of Historical Necessity”, or even "The Department of Accidental Necessity", but instead its now “Aufhebung.”  Don’t worry, the film will start with a definition of the term.

The old title will still remain for now in trailers, money applications, posters, blog and website entries.

It will be a long film.  Hopefully moving fast though.

I am working on setting its openning nigh for early March next year.

Stay tuned.

The Siemek's update

Work at the Marek Siemek documentary - "The Faculty of Accidental Necessity" (yes, the title evolves)  is in full speed now.  Lately I discovered a rare video footage of Siemek's lectures, recorded when he was at his peek.  In his early 50ties, beaming with charisma, smarts and power he validates the raves other have been using in describing him.

What's more important -  in one of the lectures he brings his guard down and allows for a discussion about how much in what he talks about is his own and what are his philosophical goals.  His normal method is to hide himself rather well behind "the presentations" and behind "showing the field".  Yet in the same way there is no objective storytelling in film, here is no objective presentation in philosophy.  I think.

Needles to say this footage significantly colors the entire story.

Yet, as shown below, listening to (even brilliant) philosophical lectures could be challenging, boring and frustrating (to some):

Perceptiveness of the past

Stanislaw Elsner-Zaluski as Marek Siemek

Stephan Boden as Friedrich Schiller

from the upcoming documentary

"Department of Historical Necessity"

I just returned from Jena and Bonn where we were shooting scenes for the Marek Siemek documentary. 

The project is going forward despite budgetary hard squeezes.  Still, we managed to orchestrate a meeting between Siemek and Schiller.  Above are the two snapshots from this encounter.  

What seemed significant in directing this meeting was to have Schiller be the one who notices somebody out of his time and space, not the other way around.  As if the past not only influences but  is also able to read and perceive the reality of now. 

Needless to say it isn't going to be a normal documentary flick, although there will be classical elements there as well.

Perception

Hello Siemek friends and colleagues,

I am still struggling to properly articulate a documentary about Marek Siemek.

Would anyone talk to me about the above diagram? 

Is it correct?

Is it too simplistic?  (I know the intellect should come to play there as well)

Do you recall anything from your memories of Siemek that would chime with this model of human perception?

Your feedback (either here or via email - pawel@directing.com) would be greatly appreciated.  

Thanks,

Pawel

Siemek and Velazquez

Professor Marek Siemek treated Las Meninas by Velazquez as a profound philosophical statement.  That's the fact from his lectures about the Fichte's theory of seeing.  During those lectures Siemek analysed the paining in detail.

One day walking through the hallways of the department of philosophy at Warsaw University, startled, he stopped in his tracks:  a contemporary version of the Velazquez composition suddenly appeared in front of him.

That's from the film I am currently producing.

What happened when Siemek entered "the painting"?  

Who will replace the royal couple reflected in the back mirror in the Velazquez's painting?

To find out you need to wait till the movie is finished.

For now there are a few offline (cropped) screenshots from the scene:

     

Prof. Siemek is played by Stanisław Elsner-Załuski

Cinematography by Piotr Rejmer

(We have shot it in 4K and no reframing has been done yet)

SIEMEK - Truth on screen

Prof. Jean Pierre Lasota-Hirszowicz
in a documentary about Marek Siemek
“The View from a Cathedral”

According to Marek Siemek, prof. Jean-Pierre Lasota-Hirszowicz (an astrophysicist specializing in black holes) was not only his best high school friend but also was intimately connected with Siemek choosing philosophy over physics.

You will have to wait till the film comes out to hear how prof. Lasota remembers “the Siemek’s choice”. Within the context of the narrative it will be revealing and quite shocking.

For now however I want to share a snippet from the shoot. It has to do with a remark made by the Professor when I suggested he enters a classroom with the camera ready to catch his natural reaction.

“ok, but it always seemed to me
that a natural way (“naturalność”)
does not come out well (on the screen),
that everything has to be set up first.”

This is an astonishing observation (at least for a "fly on the wall" filmmaker focused on chasing and catching happy accidents and in this way getting unfiltered “truth” of the moment).

I suspect that the people who deal with the Universe and the Way Things Work must know something that we “the civilians” don’t not only about the dimensions above us by also about life itself.  That the bigger and more grand perspective somehow sharpens their perception and understanding of not only the cosmos but also of the life on Earth. This is one of the reasons why the remark stopped me in my tracks.  (The Professor rejects my way of seeing his profession as needless romanticizing of his trade.  Of course he is right.)

Still, the offhand observation brought me back to muse over the old documentary dilemma of “the natural” versus “the prepared way”.     I am leaning to conclude that quite possibly the difference between preparations versus catching the stuff as it happens lies in the self understanding of those who appear in front of the camera. Clearly some need to be prepared more to come out naturally, while others are better when caught in the act.

Perhaps those who have issues with themselves, who are existentially unsure, have to be “caught in the act of being” without realizing it. Once they are made aware of the camera they start presenting their take of themselves, they try acting and since they don’t know who they are they instantaneously flex their “psychic” muscle trying to prove something. A disaster usually follows.

Those who are secure in themselves, who down deep know their boundaries, their self and their worth are usually game for whatever happens and come out naturally. Preparations and rehearsals don’t freeze them because they know who they are and remain themselves no matter what.

SIEMEK - Philosophical coincidences

prof. emeritus Bronislaw Baczko, University of Geneva, 

previously Warsaw University
(Marek Siemek considered  Baczko his Teacher and Master) 

For the last year of so I have been working on a documentary about prof. Marek Siemek (1942-2011).  The film, with the working title "The Department of Historical Necessity", is half way through shooting.  In order to seek additional support (thanks to the institution and individuals who have already helped) I will share some of the aspects of the process on this blog.  Gathering the material I have been privileged to meet and talk with many amazing scholars and friends of Siemek. To start with I’ll try to signal their upcoming presence in the film.   

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A seasoned and perceptive Teacher sees an eager and brilliant Student.  

What does the Teacher know about the future of the Student who badly wants to write his MFA thesis about Hegel?

He knows nothing, aside perhaps from some psychological intuition that belongs to wise men, you say.  OK.  

The Teacher gently steers the Student to write about Fichte instead. 

Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762-1814) was emotional and passionate.  It killed him.  Which is just a footnote in the history of philosophy.  Or is it?

The Teacher explains to the Student  that “Fiche is simpler and more manageable, later you can approach such a vast subject like Hegel.”

The Student agrees.   The argument is solid.  

The Teacher, recalling this conversation focuses on the common sense aspect of their joined decision.  It’s all logical, emphatic, proper.  

Times passes.  Actually a lifetime does.  

The Student dies too early but lives long enough to imprint his mark on the world.  He turns out to be brilliant, accomplished, nurturing his environment.  In this respect very much following the footsteps of his (beloved) Teacher.  

The Student’s legacy reveals his great oratorial talent, like Fichte.  It also reveals him being painfully misunderstood by his contemporaries, again like Fichte.   And suffering from right wing zealots, which matches the Fichte’s story as well.  

According to some, the Student died because he miscalculated human reactions, because his impulses did not take under account the brutal jealousy of his opponents.  That to a large degree matched a certain drama in Fichte’s life.   

How much of that could be known to the Teacher when he was suggesting Fichte?

None, you say.   

And on a certain level you are right.  

However......