Pola Negri

The Pola Negri Film Festival – “Early Years”, organized by Austin Polish Society, ran May 20th through June 20th, 2021.

The festival program included online screenings, and a series of articles and interviews about Pola Negri. The following films were available for viewing without territorial restrictions: a documentary directed by Mariusz Kotowski – “POLA NEGRI: LIFE OF A STAR” and four films from the beginning of the actress's career – “The Polish Dancer” (1917), “The Yellow Ticket” (1918), “Eyes of the Mummy Ma” (1918) and “Sappho” (1921). These four films were digitized and edited by Mariusz Kotowski’s Bright Shining City Productions and produced in the DVD box set: POLA NEGRI: THE ICONIC COLLECTION -"THE EARLY FILMS”.

Due to the uniqueness of both the archival footage and the sources that the director reached in the documentary, the festival was surely an event for cinema lovers.

The articles in Polish will be available on  www.cultureave.com and in English on www.austinpolishfilm.com

A note from a local arts group:

Dot Dot Dot Connect, a local arts non profit, founded by four Polish women, has produced a Mural of Pola Negri and Josephine Baker.
”We wanted to honor these two fabulously talented female artists who had the courage to follow their dreams”, said the creators of this initiative. This cool and bold mural is painted at The Yard, on St. Elmo Rd. in Austin, TX. 

 The mural reveal party was a huge success with the Consul General of the Republic of Poland in attendance.

See the video of the mural creation. To support this project and learn more about its story, follow: GoFundMe.”