Workshop of the Film Form provides an in-depth overview of the achievements of Warsztat Formy Filmowej (WWF; Workshop of the Film Form), a group of avant-garde artists who were working at the Leon Schiller National Higher School of Film, Television and Theatre in Lodz, Poland, between 1970 and 1977. WWF was founded by the students and graduates of the school, now known as the National Film School, and included: Wojciech Bruszewski, Paweł Kwiek, Andrzej Różycki, Józef Robakowski, Zbigniew Rybczyński, Kazimierz Bendkowski, Antoni Mikołajczyk, Janusz Połom, and Ryszard Waśko. As pioneers of video art in Poland and structural cinema in Central and Eastern Europe, the artists refused classical narrative and traditional film media, working instead somewhere between cinematography and contemporary art. This publication examines all aspects of WFF's activity, from their films, photographic experiments, video art, and performative actions to their teaching work, which includes previously unexplored pedagogical contributions to the National Film School. Drawing on the private archives and oral testimonies of the WWF, Workshop of the Film Form attempts to provide a full account of the group's history as well as a comprehensive survey of each member's practice. The writers who were invited to respond to the WWF for this book provide insightful new readings of the group's output and activities, contextualizing their work in the history of the prewar Polish avant-garde and the politics of experimental filmmaking in Poland under the rule of the Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR). Copublished with Fundacja Arton

Accompanying DVD contains ten short movies: Rynek / Józef Robakowski (4:21) -- Test / Józef Robakowski (2:10) -- Okno / Ryszard Waśko (8:25) -- 1,2,3 ćwiczenie operatorskie / Paweł Kwiek (7:54) -- Ćwiczenie / Józef Robakowski (4:20) -- YYAA / Wojciech Bruszewski -- Ide / Józef Robakowski (2:35) -- Zaprzeczenie / Ryszard Waśko (4:00) -- Obszar / Kazimierz Bendkowski (4:43) -- A-B-C-D-E-F = 1-36 / Ryszard Waśko (6:10).

Accompanying DVD contains ten short movies: Rynek / Józef Robakowski (4:21) -- Test / Józef Robakowski (2:10) -- Okno / Ryszard Waśko (8:25) -- 1,2,3 ćwiczenie operatorskie / Paweł Kwiek (7:54) -- Ćwiczenie / Józef Robakowski (4:20) -- YYAA / Wojciech Bruszewski -- Ide / Józef Robakowski (2:35) -- Zaprzeczenie / Ryszard Waśko (4:00) -- Obszar / Kazimierz Bendkowski (4:43) -- A-B-C-D-E-F = 1-36 / Ryszard Waśko (6:10).

This is the first comprehensive English-language account of the Polish avant-garde film, from its beginnings in the early decades of the last century to the collapse of communism in 1989. Taking a broad understanding of avant-garde film, this collection includes writings on the pioneering work of the internationally-acclaimed Franciszka and Stefan Themerson; the Polish Futurists' (Jalu Kurek, Anatol Stern) engagement with film; the Thaw and animation (Jan Lenica and Walerian Borowczyk, Andrzej Pawlowski, Zbigniew Rybczynski); documentary (Natalia Brzozowska, Kazimierz Karabasz, Wojciech Wiszniewski), Polish émigré filmmakers (Roman Polanski, Jerzy Skolimowski, Andrzej Zulawski) as well as essays and documentation on the highly influential Film Form Workshop (Józef Robakowski, Ryszard Wasko, Wojciech Bruszewski). Including a mix of historical writings from early film magazines with commissioned essays, this book constitutes an important source on the rich, complex and diverse history of the Polish film avant-garde, which is presented from the perspective of both British (A. L. Rees, Jonathan Owen, Michael O'Pray) and Polish (Marcin Gizycki, Ryszard Kluszczynski, Kamila Kuc) authorities on the subject. This book is thus an indispensable introduction to the theories and practices of critically important avant-garde artists and filmmakers.