Hear My Cry / Usłyszcie mój krzyk
Surveillance: Secret Police Film Festival 3.
New York-i Nyílt Társadalom Intézet / Open Society Foundations, New York
Goethe-Institut Budapest
The third event of the retrospective film program “Surveillance: Secret Police Film Festival”, which includes an international selection of training films, newsreels and operative films produced by Communist Secret Police 1962–1989.
A Chronicle of Operations / Dwanaście filmów operacyjnych (operative film)
Excerpts from operative films from different events, supplemented by comments on the events and the techniques used during the surveillance operations.
Poland, in Polish with English subtitles, 1968-1976, 24 min
Communist Technologies of Surveillance: PESEL population registry / Budowa Rządowego Centrum Informatycznego PESEL (newsreel)
PESEL is the Polish identification number still in use as of 2015, however its genesis in the surveillance program undertaken by the Interior Ministry dates back to the 1970s.
Poland, in Polish with English subtitles, 1974, 8 min
Official Visit / Wizitacja (newsreel)
General Wojciech Jaruzelski pays a visit to the PESEL Center in Warsaw.
In Polish with English subtitles, cca. 1975, 6 min, silent
Source of the 3 films: The Institute of National Remembrance, Warsaw
Hear My Cry / Usłyszcie mój krzyk (documentary film)
In front of thousands of people, Ryszard Siwiec poured gasoline over himself and lit himself on fire during a festival at a Stadium in Warsaw on September 8, 1968. Film director, Maciej Drygas reveals the real story behind the sacrifice using secret police films and records, and via interviews with relatives and eyewitnesses.
directed by Maciej Drygas, Poland, Polish with English subtitles, 1991, 46 min
The films are in Polish with English subtitles.