As part of the 100-year anniversary of the City of Gdynia, the section Films from Gdynia will be considerably expanded. The screenings will be used as a pretext for a wider discussion about the city’s identity, involving experts, artists, activists, and representatives of cultural institutions operating in Gdynia.
Born of dreams, built as a window onto the world, offering a broad perspective, it is celebrating its centenary this year. To mark the occasion, we want to listen to Gdynia, take a close look at its energy, and talk about the city’s identity and its memory – the broad, official one, and every private memory preserved in the home archives of Gdynia’s residents. I invite you to the birthday series of ‘Talks about the City’. And I wish Gdynia many more wonderful years ahead – comments Joanna Łapińska, Artistic Director of the PFF.
Screening of Signs of Mr Plum by Urszula Morga and Bartosz Mikołajczyk will be accompanied by a talk “Typography & Topography of the City and its Identity” about the visual DNA of Gdynia: modernism, architecture, lettering, signboards, and signs. The discussion will feature art and design historian Beata Bochińska, architect, curator and educator Aneta Lehmann, and graphic designer, painter, curator and urban activist Jacek Wielebski.
The discussion after the screening of The Last Ride (1963) by Jan Batory will centre on the theme “Gdynia Loves Film, Film Loves Gdynia” and we will attempt to determine how much truth can be found in this statement. Along the Festival, Gdynia Film School, Gdynia Film Centre, and other smaller entities have been operating. Is Gdynia truly a “Polish Cannes”, with film closely woven into its identity? The discussion will feature film scholar and lecturer Krzysztof Kornacki, Polish language teachers Monika and Wojciech Kulling, and director, film producer and poet Urszula Morga.
In Jerzy Rados’ Gdynia. My City private footage and conversations with residents, compiled to mark the 90th anniversary of the granting of city rights, form a collective portrait of the city. And in Paulina Kubica’s My Gdynia hundred years of City of Gdynia history is told by its citizens. Personal recollections and memories paint a picture of the city we know today. The screenings will be preceded by a discussion entitled “Intimate Record of the City in Private Footage – the significance of film archives in shaping the city’s collective memory”, focusing on the role of amateur films from various periods, which together form a private, unofficial film chronicle of the city and its inhabitants. The discussion will feature director Marcin Borchardt (The Beksińskis. Sound and Picture Album, Magic Hour), whose films demonstrate how home video can become a chronicle of everyday life and a testimony to people, the times and the city, as well as film director, editor and producer Paulina Kubica and Joanna Majchrzak, lead oral history specialist at the Museum of Emigration in Gdynia.
The starting point for a talk “Culture In The City. What Are The Citizen’s Expectations?” will be All That Jazz – “The Producers”, a documentary about preparations to the Musical Theatre in Gdynia musical The Producers, and Who Is Still Afraid of Natasha?, a movie about a sculpture in urban space, alluding to a controversial Monument to Brotherhood in Arms of Polish and Soviet Soldiers. Each projection poses a different question about the culture of Gdynia: its strengths and unknowns, availability of big productions as well as the grassroots initiatives, whether the cultural map stretches further than the City Centre The discussion will feature Monika Domańska, a cultural manager, community organiser and entrepreneur; Katarzyna Korzeniewska, director of the Gdynia Cultural Centre – Konsulat Kultury; and Bartosz Pieczyński, an author and geographer with links to the Tri-City.
Events accompanying the city’s centenary celebrations at the PFF will also include “The Complete Kachu. The Art of Kazimierz Ostrowski” – a monographic exhibition devoted to one of the most important artists associated with Gdynia: the painter, pioneer of the post-war avant-garde and professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk – as well as Tours of the Gdynia Modernism Route and the Tour of the Gdynia Film Route. They will also be accompanied by the Gdynia Centenary Crew – sailors will set off on a festival cruise to see just how much of Gdynia its visitors have in them. The programme will include quizzes, challenges, interesting facts and the chance to take a selfie with the hashtag #GDYNIA100.
Events accompanying the city’s centenary celebrations at the PFF will also include “The Complete Kachu. The Art of Kazimierz Ostrowski” – a monographic exhibition devoted to one of the most important artists associated with Gdynia: the painter, pioneer of the post-war avant-garde and professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk – as well as Tours of the Gdynia Modernism Route and the Tour of the Gdynia Film Route. They will also be accompanied by the Gdynia Centenary Crew – sailors will set off on a festival cruise to see just how much of Gdynia its visitors have in them. The programme will include quizzes, challenges, interesting facts and the chance to take a selfie with the hashtag #GDYNIA100.
The patron of the Films from Gdynia section and Talks about the City is “Zawsze Pomorze”.
Films from Gdynia
Signs of Mr Plum directed by: Urszula Morga, Bartosz Mikołajczyk
The Last Ride, directed by: Jan Batory
All That Jazz – The Producers, directed by: Agata Hering
Who is Still Afraid of Natasha?, directed by: Joanna Malinowska, CT Jasper
Gdynia. My City, directed by: Jerzy Rados
My Gdynia 100, directed by: Paulina Kubica
Talks about the City
Chamber Stage, Musical Theatre in Gdynia | 22nd–25th September 2026 | tickets, passes, accreditations
- Culture in the City. What Are the Citizen’s Expectations? | 22nd September 2026, 6.00 p.m. | Guests: Monika Domańska, Katarzyna Korzeniewska, Bartosz Pieczyński. Moderated by Marcin Mindykowski
- Gdynia loves film, film loves Gdynia – a review of a popular slogan | 23rd September 2026, 6.00 p.m. | Guests: Krzysztof Kornacki, Monika and Wojciech Kulling, Urszula Morga. Moderated by Marcin Mindykowski
- Typography & Topography of the City and its Identity | 24th September 2026, 6.00 p.m. | Guests: Beata Bochińska, Aneta Lehmann, Jacek Wielebski. Moderated by Marcin Mindykowski
- Intimate Record of the City in Private Footage – the significance of film archives in shaping the city’s collective memory | 25th September 2026, 6.00 p.m. | Guests: Marcin Borchardt, Paulina Kubica, Joanna Majchrzak. Moderated by Marcin Mindykowski
Exhibition "The Complete Kachu. The Art of Kazimierz
Ostrowski” | Curated by Agnieszka Drączkowska-Gradzik | Gdynia City Museum, Zawiszy Czarnego 1, Gdynia | 05.07.2026 – 28.02.2027 | Free admission for accreditation holders
Tours of the Gdynia Modernism Route and Tour of the Gdynia Film Route
Gdynia Centenary Crew , i.e. quizzes and challenges
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