WARSAW INTERNATIONAL JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL
HA-MOTIV HA-JEHUDI
18-27 April 2004

Mirosław Chojecki, Director of the Festival gives us a couple of statements about the Festival Mission :

"We want to awaken the audience’s interest in topics related to the Jewish identity and experience throughout history, to the preservation of Jewish culture and tradition as a source of Judeo-Christian civilization – through the art of cinema.

We want the films on Jewry to reach the young audience who is confronted today with the complex problems of our times, such as terrorism, intolerance and hatred.

We want to present, first of all, films made in Central and Eastern Europe.

We want to involve our audience in the creation of the future editions of the Festival at meetings and discussions about its organisation and concurrent events. The audience’s suggestions will be taken into account by the Festival’s Programme Board.

We want to share our experience and professionalism as partners or consultants with the local communities interested in Jewish subjects both in Poland and abroad.

We want to actively co-operate with other international Jewish film festivals in Europe on the basis of direct contacts, similar to these we have already established with the festivals in Brighton, Stockholm and Vienna.

Through artistic expression in the form of films we want to find ways of communicating with all religious, national and cultural communities in order to better know each other and better understand their diverse motives. We want to emphasize that which we all have in common.

Our aim is to present non-profit productions, pioneer or seeking new ways of expression, which do not clash with the universal requirement of truth in artistic work.

We respect human rights and human dignity."


The 2004 Jury includes:
Miron Czernienko (Russian Federation), film critic and cinema historian
Michael Handelzalts (Israel), chief of Literary Section of the daily "Haaretz"
Kurt Weber (Poland/Germany), one of the greatest cinematographers
Leo Kantor (Sweden), Chairman of the Organising Committee of the International Documentary Film Festival „Humanity in the World”
Edward Żebrowski (Poland), film director

50 films from 20 countries will be screened during the 10 days.
They have been divided into three categories: documentary, feature and experimental (animated, short).