The construction of the Gdynia Film Centre has started
The ceremony of setting the foundation stone for the building of the Gdynia Film Centre was attended by the municipal and regional authorities, the municipal and cultural institutions’ representatives, as well as the constructors and the design authors.
“Thanks to the Feature Film Festival, the love for cinema began, a love of many faces. Thanks to the creators, new ideas emerged: film workshops, and then, the Gdynia Film School. A new film environment formed here,” Wojciech Szczurek, the Mayor of Gdynia, emphasized during the event. “This was possible thanks to the people who added new ideas to the chain. This place will be the flagship of the Polish and world cinema throughout the year.”
The Gdynia Film Centre is a project implemented by the Gdynia Culture Forum in collaboration with the Pomeranian Film Foundation in Gdynia. The building, designed by Arch Deco and erected by Budimex, will be raised at Plac Grunwaldzki. Located in the close vicinity of Skwer Kościuszki, Bulwar Nadmorski, the city beach, the Gdynia City Museum and the planned Maritime Forum, according to the concept of the Foundation and the municipal authorities, is supposed to become a new cultural centre of the city.
“The central location and modern infrastructure enable the Gdynia Film Centre to implement a programme that is aimed at widening the educational, cultural and artistic offer of the Gdynia city”, Maciej Orłoś, the master of the ceremony, read out information included in the founding act which, together with a certificate of the activity of the Pomeranian Film Foundation, the Gdynia Film School and the city, has been put in the foundation stone.
As Leszek Kopeć, the Board President of the Pomeranian Film Foundation and the Director of the Gdynia Film Foundation, has announced, “the fast pace of the construction works provides us with real chances for the widening of the next, jubilee 40. Gdynia Film festival with a new, now essential area with screening rooms, a club and a place of meetings for creators and the audience.”
“This vision is common to all of us. It will be a school place, which is a place for creative work, the Festival, an art house, meetings of creators with the young audience. It is here where film knowledge competitions will take place, where young film specialists will meet,” says Anna Sienkiewicz-Rogowska, Director’s Attorney of the Polish Film Institute. “Thank you, Mayor, for such consistent support of the Polish cinematography.”
The founding act was signed by the founders, the city authorities, and the creators. It includes the signatures of Mayor Wojciech Szczurek, Director Anna Sienkiewicz-Rogowska, the Gdynia Film Festival Directors, the designer Zbigniew Reszka, the Gdynia Film School directors and lecturers: Jacek Bławut, Robert Gliński, Piotr Mikucki, Mirosław Przylipiak, Sławomir Pultyn, Jerzy rados, Irena Siedlar; a member of the Main Board of the Polish Filmmakers’ Association, Andrzej Jasiewicz; the Director of the Documentary and Feature Films Studio, Włodzimierz Niderhaus; actresses: Bożena Dykiel, Katarzyna Figura, Dorota Kolak and Danuta Stenka.
The opening of the Centre is planned for the second half of 2015. The GFC building is one of the Municipal Projects funded from the JESSICA Initiative sources and implemented within the Regional Operational Programme for the Pomeranian Province for the years 2007-2013.
Photographs by Dorota Nelke.
