Far From Poland

(Jill Godmilow, US/Poland 1984, 106 min., 16mm)

Here and Elsewhere. In Jill Godmilow’s Far From Poland, reenactment, melodrama, and self-reflexive address complicate our understanding of truth in documentary. Inspired by her experiences in Poland shortly after the start of the solidarity movement, Godmilow conceived of this film upon returning to New York with the intention to raise funds for an expository take on the workers’ struggle. After a denied travel visa foreclosed the possibility of executing her original idea, however, she broadened the investigation to include the formal parameters of truth-telling in nonfiction cinema. Far From Poland offers viewers the opportunity to examine their relationship to history as it is mediated by filmmaking.

Print courtesy of Academy Film Archive.