The City of Poznań Freedom Award
This year’s edition of the Millennium Docs Against Gravity festival in Poznań is the fourth time that The City Of Poznań Freedom Award will be presented. From the films selected for the national Main Competition, a three-person Jury will award the winning title that most faithfully defends the foundations of freedom and fights for dignity and human rights through its cinematic message. The creator of the winning film will receive a prize of €3000. The announcement of the recipient of the award and the presentation of the statuette will take place on Thursday, May 16, at 8pm in Cinema Muza (Room No. 1).
Jury:
Ewa Ewart is a journalist and award-winning documentary director, specialising in groundbreaking and compelling films. She was born and raised in Poland but has spent most of her professional life in the United Kingdom, working for the BBC. Ewa has travelled and worked in many countries where she has made investigative and political documentaries as well as programmes addressing social issues. Her films have revealed new information about such issues as corruption in Boris Yeltsin's Russia, secret prisons in North Korea, the civil war in Colombia and the CIA's secret and illegal programme of extraordinary extradition of terrorist suspects. Ewa Ewart's documentaries cover the most significant historical events, such as the Beslan tragedy – a film made for the first anniversary of the terrorist attack that killed more than 170 children. In another documentary, five years later, Ewa focused on the trauma still experienced by the children who survived the inhumane attack. For the past few years, Ewa Ewart has been the presenter of the foreign documentary segment on TVN24 and TVN24Bis, a commercial TV station in Poland owned by the Americans. Ewart is also a motivational speaker for various audiences, with whom she shares her experiences, described in her book "Widziałam". Ewa is fluent in Russian, Spanish, Polish and English.
Agnieszka Jankowiak-Maik – teacher of history and social education, PhD in humanities, publicist and educational activist, known online as Babka od histy. Author of the book "Historia, której nie było". Winner of the 14th edition of the Irena Sendler Award "For Repairing the World", "Medal of Freedom of Speech" Grand Press in the "Citizen" category and the title of the Greater Poland Teacher of the Year 2021. Graduate of the International Visitor Leadership Program. Vice-President of the Women's History Museum Foundation. Promoter of modern teaching methods, civil society and the female side of history.
Klaudiusz Chrostowski –- author of feature films, documentaries and music videos. He graduated in film and video from the University of the Arts in London and in directing from the Film School in Łódź. His music video from Daniel Bloom’s “Katarakta” won a Fryderyk nomination for the best music video of the year. His feature length documentary “Call Me Tony” has won prizes at IDFA International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam, Millennium Docs Against Gravity and ZagrebDox. It has also been presented at Dok Leipzig, Doc Aviv and Escales Documentaries. His feature debut “Ultima Thule” won the award for the best micro-budget film at the Gdynia Film Festival and the Perspectiva Award for the most promising debut of 2023.
