OUR CURSE (pl. NASZA KLĄTWA) (directed by Tomasz Śliwiński, Poland 2013, 27 minutes) The film is a personal statement of the director and his wife, who have to deal with a very rare and incurable disease of their newborn child – the Ondine’s Curse (also known as CCHS, congenital central hypoventilation syndrome). People affected with this disease stop breathing during sleep and require a lifetime mechanical ventilation on a ventilator. The film shows the process of taming fear associated with the disease. The story of the film characters is presented on the blog: www.leoblog.pl
Film is now available online at New York Times Op-Docs: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/02/opinion/our-curse.html
CREDITS
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY Tomasz Śliwiński
CAST Magda Hueckel, Tomasz Śliwiński & Leo Hueckel-Śliwiński
CINEMATOGRAPHY Tomasz Śliwiński, Magda Hueckel
EDITING Justyna Król, Tomasz Śliwiński
SOUND Grzegorz Lindemann
COLOR CORRECTION Przemysław Niedźwiecki
ARTISTIC SUPERVISION Anna Kazejak
PRODUCTION Warszawska Szkoła Filmowa
PRODUCER Maciej Ślesicki
MUSIC The following track has been used in the movie: The Twilight Singers "Number Nine" (words & music: Greg Dulli)
A lullaby sang in the film contains fragments of the following songs: "Kołysanka" by Andrzeja Kaliszczyk and "Kołysanka senna", music Tadeusz Woźniak, words Bogdan Chorążuk, used by kind permission of the artists.
THANKS We would like to thank all people that participated in the making of the movie and especially: Anna Kazejak Maciej Ślesicki Zbigniew Niciński Julia Hueckel & Jarosław Kamiński, Rafał Listopad and students of 4th year of editing at PWSFTViT 2012/13
SPECIAL THANKS Paweł Łoziński
a Polish Film Institute co-financed production
AT FESTIVALS:
29th Warsaw Film Festival, Poland, 2013 (screening)
International Film Festival Watch Docs - Human Rights in Film , 2013 (screening)
Documentarist, Turkey, 2014 (screening)
28th Pärnu International Documentary and Antropological FF, Estonia, 2014(screening)
International Bosphorus Film Festival 2014, Turkey, 2014 (screening)
Guanajuato International FF, Mexico, 2015 (screening)
12th Jameson CineFest Miskolc IFF, Hungary, 2015 (screening)
In Te Cinema Festival, Italy, 2015 (screening)
IDFF "Flahertiana", Russia, 2015 (screening)
66th Locarno Film Festival, Switzerland, 2013 (competition)
IDFA - International Documentary Festival Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2013 (Nomination for IDFA Award)
One World International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival, Czech Republic, 2014 (competition)
19th Vilnius International Film Festival, Lithuania, 2014 (competition)
23rd Aspen Shorts Fest, USA, 2014 (Best Documentary Award)
Indielisboa, Portugal, 2014 (Audience Award)
DOXA - Documentary Film Festival, Canada, 2014 (competition)
Doc/Fest Sheffield, UK, 2014 (Student Doc Award, Audience Award)
AFI Docs, USA, 2014 (competition)
Monterrey International FF, Mexico, 2014 (Best International Short Documentary)
11th Jameson CineFest Miskolc International Film Festival, Hungary, 2014(competition)
Look& Roll Film Festival, Switzerland, 2014 (Denk an mich Foundation Award)
22nd Raindance Film Fesival, UK, 2014 (Best Documentary Short)
CNEX Documentary Film Festival , Taiwan, 2014 (competition)
Astra Film Festival 2014, Romania, 2014 (competition)
Chagrin Documentary Film Festival, USA, 2014 (Best Student Film)
9th Sapporo International Short Film Festival and Market, Japan, 2014 (Best Documentary)
IndieCork Festival, Ireland, 2014 (Special Mention)
Woodstock Film Festival, USA, 2014 (The Diane Seligman Award for Best Short Documentary)
Heartland Film Festival, USA, 2014 (Jimmy Stewart Memorial Crystal Heart Award)
7th Annual Imagine Science Film Festival, USA, 2014 (Nature Scientific Merit Award)
VERZIO Documentary Film Festival, Hungary, 2014 (competition)
Sleepwalkers International Film Festival 2014, Estonia, 2014 (Special Mention)
12th Bogota International Short Film Festival, Colombia, 2014 (Best International Short Documentary)
The Other Film Festival, USA, 2014 (competition)
12th International Festival Signes de Nuit, France, 2014 (competition)
11th Talca International Short Film Festival, Chile, 2015 (competition)
Irvine International Film Festival, USA, 2015 (Best College/University Documentary )
11th annual Boulder International Film Festival, USA, 2015 (Best Short Documentary)
39th Cleveland International Film Festival, USA, 2015 (competition)
14th Ashland Independent Film Festival, USA, 2015 (competition)
Newport Beach Film Festival 2015, USA, 2015 (competition)
West Chester Film Festival, USA, 2015 (competition)
International Human Rights Film Festival In Albania, 2015 (competition)
Crested Butte Film Festival, USA, 2015 (competition)
8th CinEast Central and Eastern European Film Festival, Luxembourg, 2015(competition)
THESS International Short Film Festival, Greece, 2015 (competition)
AWARDS AT POLISH FESTIVALS:
Short Waves Festival - Short Waves Grand Prix Award
Żubrowffka 2013 - Best Documentary
13th IFF T-Mobile New Horizons - Special Mention
INTERVIEW WITH AUTHORS:
http://www.portalfilmowy.pl/wydarzenia,92,16219,1,1,Oswajanie-klatwy.html (in Polish only)
http://polishdocs.pl/pl/czytelnia/1807/nasza-klatwa-tomasza-sliwinskiego-na-festiwalu-idfa---wywiad-z-autorem-filmu (in Polish only)
http://www.pisf.pl/pl/kinematografia/news/rozmowa-z-tomaszem-sliwinskim (in Polish only)
FILM REVIEWS:
http://www.krytykapolityczna.pl/artykuly/film/20130627/czlowiek-parowka-rozdaje-ulotki (in Polish only)
http://visionesospesa.blogspot.com/2013/09/locarno-66-5-nasza-klatwa-our-curse.html (in Italian only)
http://kulturalnytorun.pl/recenzje/rozne-oblicza-milosci (in Polish only)
http://stopklatka.pl/-/80046985,polski-dokument-trzyma-sie-mocno (in Polish only)
Cursed, before your eyes (The Aspen Times) (in English only)