- The Festival is not only a celebration of integration, people with disabilities and tolerance but also it is a celebration of Koszalin - Koszalin vice-President Przemysław Krzyżanowski, opening the conference said. - The Festival has become really important on the cultural map of our city and region as well as whole Poland. It is also known abroad. I am very glad that Koszalin Public Library will host numerous film makers and viewers once again who will be able to feel this wonderful atmosphere that the festival is well known for.
The festival’s director, Barbara Jaroszyk talked about the leitmotif of this year’s edition of EFF Integration You and Me as well as about activities taking place throughout the whole year.
-It is unbelievable that we will have an honour to host our fantastic film makers and audience for the 16th time. I’ll remind that the Festival does not only last in September. Throughout the year we organise Integration Film Academy, in June there are Photo Confrontations and in autumn we visit Brussels. We have decided to reschedule the prize giving ceremony to Friday but film screenings will also take place on Saturday. The whole edition will be devoted to a really important topic - professional careers of the people with disabilities. We have been able to invite to our cooperation e.g. District Job Centre with which we are organising a scientific conference.
Dariusz Pawlikowski, a programme director talked about the film programme of our Festival. -During the Festival we will watch 38 contest and 6 non-contest films. They come from 17 countries including Poland. As usually we have wanted to present good films, an important aspect was also a geographical aspect because we want to see how cinematography interprets the topic of disability in various parts of the world. The topics differ from one another - sport, love, problems of the elderly, relationships between people, civilization diseases but also terrorism or post-traumatic stress disorder. This year we have a horror film for the first in the contest!
Dorota Czech added: -The project is evolving all the time but what is regular is the fact that we are invited to numerous places in Poland for Small Festivals You and Me and EFF Integration You and Me in cinemas, art houses in big cities. Our Festival’s tent will also be a cinema this year, it will be darkened and we will broadcast films with audio description there as a part of ‘Hear a Film!’ project. The programme is very varied, admission to all events is free. We are only waiting for the viewers!