Polish Newsreel

(Polska Kronika Filmowa, PKF)

   PKF was a documentary newsreel, approximately ten minutes long, usually shown before a main feature in Polish cinema theaters from 1944 to 1995. This "filmic newspaper," which followed the documentary tradition of early actualities, focused on local and foreign events and often attempted to comment on political, social, and cultural phenomena. PKF had continued the tradition of the prewar Polish Telegraphic Agency (Polska Agencja Telegraficzna, PAT) established in 1918, which had the exclusive rights to film inside state buildings since 1927. The first edition of PKF appeared on 1 December 1944, produced by Czołówka; its first irregular editions from 1944 to 1949 were supervised by Jerzy Bossak. Since 1949 PKF was produced by the Documentary Film Studio. It had regular weekly editions in the first half of the 1950s and two weekly editions from 1958 to 1981. The newsreel, with the musical signal composed by Władysław Szpilman (see THE PIANIST), was appreciated by Polish audiences; many of its editions also received numerous international recognitions. Several famous documentary filmmakers were involved in its production. For example, the celebrated documentary film The Flood (Powódź, 1947), produced by Jerzy Bossak and Wacław Kaźmierczak, was first shown as a special edition of Polish Newsreel.

   Historical Dictionary of Polish Cinema by Marek Haltof