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22nd Millennium Docs Against Gravity – tickets on sale now!

Millennium Docs Against Gravity, a 10-day celebration of documentary cinema, is fast approaching. Between May 9 and 18, more than seventy documentaries from around the world will be presented at the DCF Cinema. These unforgettable cinematic journeys will be accompanied by meetings with filmmakers, heroes and heroines, as well as other accompanying events.

Seven cities, more than 165,000 spectators and viewers in 2024, several hundred volunteers across the country – all these people, institutions, and places make up the MDAG festival family. Thanks to their work and love for cinema over the last two decades, Millennium Docs Against Gravity has become Europe’s second-largest documentary film festival, after IDFA in Amsterdam. Such a huge undertaking is the result of the work of many people. This year’s poster focuses on the largest group, the volunteers. It features two long-time volunteers from different generations — Sophia and Anna. This year’s MDAG slogan also refers to a sense of community and reads „Między nami cały świat” (eng. “The Whole World Between Us”).

The 22nd edition of Millennium Docs Against Gravity offers a fascinating journey not only across the globe but also through a wide range of important topics — ecology, politics, psychology, human rights, art (including avant-garde), pop culture, and family dynamics.

The full festival program is available on the MDAG website. Tickets can be purchased online at mdag.co.uk or directly at the box offices and on the website of the Lower Silesian Film Center (DCF).

The University of Wrocław is once again a partner of the festival

The University of Wrocław again joins Millennium Docs Against Gravity as a program partner. This year, the UW is represented by dr Piotr Jakub Fereński from the Institute of Cultural Studies, who will lead a discussion panel following the film “Bedrock”. Kinga Michalska’s latest film is a quiet yet chilling journey through contemporary Poland, telling the stories of people living in places marked by the Holocaust. In “Bedrock”, the protagonists are not only the people, but also the landscapes themselves — spaces where echoes of a tragic past still resonate. The film captures how everyday life coexists with traces of violence and how the present remains entangled with the Holocaust. The filmmaker documents, with remarkable sensitivity, the unsettling contradictions that the inhabitants of Auschwitz, Jedwabne, Brzezinka, and the Lower Silesian town of Sieniawka have learned to live with. After the screening, dr Fereński will join the filmmakers for a conversation exploring the difficult terrain of memory, responsibility, and trauma.

A festival that keeps its finger on the pulse.

Each year, the MDAG program introduces new thematic sections that tackle issues of particular significance to filmmakers over the past 12 months. The festival keeps its finger on the pulse of the documentary world. This year, Wrocław will feature four new sections: Investigative Editorial, American Contrasts, On Photography, and Women Changing the World.

The films in the Investigative Editorial section are eye-opening, shedding light on crucial facts that have been hidden, enabling us to make more conscious decisions in our lives. The American Contrasts section brings together stories that explore the transformation of society in the US over the past decades. Meanwhile, the On Photography section offers a glimpse into the work of exceptional artists, particularly women, who have documented significant events, people, and societal changes through their photography. The heroines featured in the Women Changing the World section fight for justice and equality in various ways — from filmmaking to music, from stand-up comedy to space exploration. They come from diverse backgrounds, but they all share one thing in common: they are transforming their small, personal microcosms and speaking out publicly to influence the global geopolitical landscape.

Film gems from Sundance and Berlinale in the MDAG program.

As in previous years, the Millennium Docs Against Gravity program will feature films that have won critical and audience acclaim at the world’s largest film festivals – Berlinale and Sundance.

Among them is the documentary winner of the Berlinale, the shocking “Holding Liat” (dir. Brandon Kramer), which received the Berlinale Documentary Award! The festival in Berlin also featured Polish accents. “Letters from Wolf Street” is an intimate portrayal of Poland seen through the eyes of director Arjun Talwar from India, who has lived in the country for many years. Meanwhile, “Bedrock” (dir. Kinga Michalska) is a heartbreaking psychological journey through the sites of the Holocaust.

From the Sundance Festival, the biggest celebration of independent cinema, the MDAG programmers brought stories about politics, the search for identity, concern for the future, and the pursuit of justice, including “Mr. Nobody Against Putin” (dir. David Borenstein), which tells the story of a Russian teacher watching his country change with horror.

A co-production by DCF in the MDAG program

For over 20 years, a group of street basketball enthusiasts in Walbrzych has been organizing a unique tournament,„Alkatraz – basket w rytmie hip-hopu” (eng. “Alkatraz – Basketball in the Rhythm of Hip-Hop”), which brings together street basketball fans from across Poland. “Escape to Alcatraz”, a co-production of the Lower Silesian Film Center and Wrocław Film Studio, tells the story of individuals who found a way to challenge the harsh socio-economic realities of the 1990s. Street basketball became their passion, and the Alkatraz court — a grassroots venue — became a symbol of determination and the fight to achieve their dreams.

The Lower Silesian premiere, which will take place on May 15 at 20:00 at the DCF cinema, will be followed by a meeting with the directors, Artur Pilarczyk and Bartłomiej Kośinski, the film’s producer, Marcin Żukowski, and the protagonists, Michał “Borz” Borzemski and Marcin “Sikor” Sikorski.

This will not be the only opportunity to see “Escape to Alcatraz.” Another screening with the filmmakers and characters will take place on May 17 in Wałbrzych at the Apollo Cinema of the Lower Silesia Film Center.

The 22nd edition of MDAG in Wrocław will take place from May 9 to May 18, 2025, at the DCF cinema, with the online part running from May 20 to June 2 on the mdag.pl platform. The title sponsor of the festival is Bank Millennium.

Translated by Zuzanna Sobkowiak (student of English Studies at the University of Wrocław) as part of the translation practice.