Documentary maker with a human touch
Witold Starecki, who has died of cancer aged 64, made documentaries that glowed with humour and humanity. He started his film-making career in Poland after graduating from the National Film School in Lodz. In 1984, he was encouraged to move to Britain by Roger Mills, then editor of the BBC's documentary series 40 Minutes. Witold had a film he wanted to shoot about the treatment of mental patients in Poland, but even he, with all his subtle skills, had been unable to slide it past the censors of state television. Mills invited him to make it under the BBC's aegis.
Broadcast later that year, Asylum was a triumph: a painfully beautiful portrait of patients from a mental hospital near the Soviet border. Their only break from the bleakness of the asylum was to work for local peasants until they were too ill or too old to continue.
Witold Starecki, who has died of cancer aged 64, made documentaries that glowed with humour and humanity. He started his film-making career in Poland after graduating from the National Film School in Lodz. In 1984, he was encouraged to move to Britain by Roger Mills, then editor of the BBC's documentary series 40 Minutes. Witold had a film he wanted to shoot about the treatment of mental patients in Poland, but even he, with all his subtle skills, had been unable to slide it past the censors of state television. Mills invited him to make it under the BBC's aegis.
Broadcast later that year, Asylum was a triumph: a painfully beautiful portrait of patients from a mental hospital near the Soviet border. Their only break from the bleakness of the asylum was to work for local peasants until they were too ill or too old to continue.
- 8/8/2011
- The Guardian - Film News
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