Musicians / dir. Kazimierz Karabasz / documentary / 1960 / 9 min. / Poland

A masterpiece of Polish documentary filmmaking. A rehearsal of the Warsaw tramway orchestra becomes, in the hands of the master director Kazimierz Karabasz, a poignant story about the eternal human need for creation. This poetic film presents a series of psychological portraits of the musicians and their 84-year-old conductor, as well as the joy of playing together. The film continues to captivate viewers today. Krzysztof Kieślowski, who considered it one of the most important documentaries in history, spoke about its creator: “Karabasz was something of a guide for me. He was able to demonstrate that a short documentary can convey more than an extended feature film. And he taught us precision, coherence, and the intelligence of editing and structure. I was under his influence. To this day, I believe that nowhere in the world have such wonderful, precisely constructed documentaries been made as in Poland from 1959 to 1968. Many of these films were Karabasz’s.