“Scouts Forever: Friends from World War II to the Present" will be a sixty-minute documentary about a group of scouts, all in their eighties and nineties, who as children participated in the resistance movement in Poland during World War II, and who have been getting together regularly for the last 70 years.
SCOUTS MEMBERS OF GROUP 22 AFTER A PLEDGE CEREMONY, GROCHÓW 1943
The children belonging to Scout Group #22 and #54 grew up in the Grochów neighborhood of Warsaw in the 1930s. They went to the same schools, most attended the same church, and they all joined the scouts at approximately the same age. As scouts they did what most scouts do all over the world: learn camping skills, be loyal to each other, and love their country. In 1939, when Poland was invaded by Germany and later by the Soviet Union, members of Scouts Groups #22 and #54 joined the Polish resistance movement. They served as couriers, distributed pamphlets, created anti-invasion graffiti, and later took on high-risk combat operations. Some of them were arrested and sent to concentrations camps, others were killed. Seventy years later the survivors of these groups: fourteen men and six women maintain a strong bond of friendship. Under the name of Grey Ranks Circle “Bazylika Grochów” they get together regularly to carry on the mission of educating new generations of Polish children about the resistance movement and of honoring those who gave their life for a free Poland.
The documentary will be in English and Polish. Through the eyes of the surviving scouts we capture their personal journey during the past seven decades and how historical events influenced their lives. We had involved different Polish Scouts groups as well as Group 22 and had captured their interaction with veteran scouts of Groups #22 and #54. The interviews are being shot on location in Warsaw with post-production being carried out between Warsaw and Washington, DC. The film is directed to a general worldwide television audience, in particular to the Polish Diaspora all over the world.
In order to have the broadcast quality needed to reach an international audience, this project requires strong financial investment. We are actively seeking the support, monetary as well as in-kind contributions, from people and institutions in Poland and the United States. So far we had conducted 10 interviews with the survivors of Scout Group #22 and #54. We filmed many celebratory events of the 70th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising in 2014 and shot several scene reenactments. We are currently in the post-production phase and we are in the process of raising new funds.
This documentary is a project of Arthavision and is being produced by Dianela Urdaneta de Ratha in collaboration with Katarzyna Timmer Lubaczewska. Dianela is an award winning writer and producer. Katarzyna is a co-producer, researcher and translator. A team of experienced film crew and post-producers are part of the team.
Producer/Director/Writer
Dianela Urdaneta de Ratha is a bilingual producer, writer and narrator with more than 25 years of experience. She has produced videos both in English and Spanish for Reuters TV, Voice of America TV, CNN Spanish, CBS Telenoticias, the Inter-American Development Bank, AARP and TMN, among others. She is the owner of the multimedia production company, “Arthavision.” A sample of her work can be viewed at www.arthavision.com.
Her videos has won five “Communitas Award” given by the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals, in the categories of “Making a Difference” and “Social Responsibility”, as well as a “Communicator Award” in the category of “Social Issues.
Ms. Urdaneta holds a Master of Art in Film and Video from the American University in Washington D.C., and a BA in Broadcast Journalism from Zulia University in Venezuela.
Co-producer/Researcher/Translator
Katarzyna is an experienced, accomplished Polish language teacher both for foreign adults and Polish children. She is also a certified simultaneous Polish/Dutch interpreter and translator.
As Chairwoman of The Hague-Warsaw City Link Foundation in the Netherlands, she helped develop and implement a wide array of projects and events on political, economic, cultural, educational, environmental and religious subjects. For this work she received the Golden Cross of Merit from the President of Poland.
Ms. Timmer Lubaczewska holds a Master’s degree in Polish and Slavic languages, and completed a PhD Linguistic Studies from the University of Warsaw. She comes from Grochów.
Cinematographer
Tadeusz was born in Warsaw, Poland to a family of TV personalities and was exposed to the TV production environment at a very early age. He has been working with still and video cameras since he was 8 year old.
His work as Director of Photography and as shooter has taken him to numerous countries including Tunisia, Italy, Spain, France and Portugal. He has worked as a DP and camera man for several music and commercial videos and has shot documentaries with directors from Poland, Nederland, Venezuela and the USA.
Tadeusz has a unique talent for lighting, creating beautiful looking interviews and an eye for unusual and interesting frames.
He has a diploma in Cinematography from the Warsaw Film School. A sample of his work can be viewed at www.kieniewicz.com.
Sound Recordist/Boom Operator
Patryk Morawski is a musician, a sound engineer and a member of the Audio Engineering Society of Poland. His interest in music started at a very early age. As a student of the music schools, he has won numerous musical competitions in the areas of hearing development, harmony and choir performances at the regional and national level.
His interest in exact science studies such as math and physics, inspired him to study sound engineering at The Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw from 2010 – 2015. He is currently working on his master thesis on the subject of sound reconstruction for the audiovisual forms.
During his professional internships he has worked on many sound projects for long films, documentaries and animation films in cooperation with the Film Schools of Łódź, Warsaw and Gdynia. He has been working as a sound recordist and a boom operator since 2013
We welcome the support, monetary as well as in-kind contributions, from people and institutions.
Scouts Forever is now fiscally sponsored by Women and Film and Video. To receive tax deduction benefits please donate trough WIFV webpage: http://www.wifv.org/about/donate/.
Members of the Grey Rank Circle “Bazylika Grochów” after a meeting in Warsaw, May 8th, 2014
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