We would like to present a short text about the collection written by Krzysztof Czyżwski:
The animated film workshop is a world created for children, a real laboratory of imagination uncontaminated by adulthood. We are all used to the fact that children sitting in front of the screen get immersed in the enchanting appearances of reality. Equally enchanting for them, as it turns out, can also be the other side of the screen, the inner one, where they can become directors themselves, even more than that - they become the guardians of the truth in the world where adults can be mere visitors from afar. It looks a bit as though you have invited witnesses to participate in the film about the events they saw. Only a bit, though...
A small laboratory of animated fairy tales has been established in Sejny, its main creators are children. Of course, it has its masters and teachers, too - Bożena Szroeder invited for cooperation outstanding artists from Poland, Russia and other countries. The children learn here film making skills and various forms and techniques of animation, starting from cartoons, to puppet, cutout, stop-motion and salt animation to digital and computer animation. Simultaneously, they co-create the stories and their role in the process increases daily. The first collection, titled Borderland Tales included script writing, drawing of the cartoons and creation of other materials for stop-motion, the children did the voice-overs and supplied ideas for film settings and direction. The Borderland Tales collection includes also songs performed by them. Most importantly, however, they were the training ground for the authors of complete concepts for some of the tales, such as Ola Kotarska and Dominika Turowicz. The age of the participating children changes, too, and more and more young children feel at home in our laboratory. The youngest makers of the tale “About the Rabbi” are three years old, among them Antoś Mizio, who lent his hand at the drawing of the clouds the Jews slept on. Piotr Fiedorowicz, only a little bit older than Antoś, taught everybody the song of The Three Turkeys, he heard from Józef Sinderewicz, born 1928.
It is a fascinating to watch the inner side of the screen of this film collection of borderland tales, creatively hosted by the children working under the guidance of their masters. The tedious, going on for days work, teaches patience, precision and attention to detail, now and again interspersed with brilliant ideas, corageous concepts and flights of imagination going far beyond the horizons of the adult world. Traditional songs, old man’s tales, an the revived with memory scraps of ancient times meet here avantguard form and modern technology. A young person coming to the laboratory must be aware of where he/she comes from and what he/she may share with others; at the same time we expect him/her to be open to the unknown and to the inventiveness of the type found in any realm of the child’s imagination. The children speak different languages, Polish, Lithuanian, Russian and sometimes they need English to communicate. But the most important is here the borderland of the child’s and adult’s worlds, respecting the rights of those who has not yet become “them” with the bitter knowledge of life exigencies, and remaining truthful to their childish independence.
