Grandmamauntsistercat

Forum Expanded 2024

Created from archival materials of the Educational Film Studio in Łódź, the film tells the story of a matriarchal family through the eyes of a child grappling with the reproduction of ideological and representational systems. Originally created as didactic and propagandistic tools in communist Poland, the footage is repurposed as a site of auto-fictional memory, its scientific register shifted toward a treatment of the images themselves as specimens.
The classic Slavic witch figure, Baba Yaga, is reimagined as a prehistoric goddess from the time of matriarchy. This transformation provokes layered reflections on kinship and identity as the child navigates binary gender roles. The women of the family find a home in the archive, engaging in a process of self and world-making that transforms the often sexist and anthropocentric images into tools of freedom and resistance.

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by Zuza Banasińska Netherlands / Poland 2024 Polish 23’ Colour & Black/White International premiere

Crew

Director	Zuza Banasińska
Screenplay	Zuza Banasińska
Editing	Zuza Banasińska
Sound Design	Zuza Banasińska, Constanza Castagnet
Producer	Zuza Banasińska

Produced by

Zuza Banasińska

http://www.zuzabanasinska.com http://www.zuzabanasinska.com

Educational Film Studio in Łódź

http://www.wfo.com.pl http://www.wfo.com.pl

Zuza Banasińska

Zuza Banasińska is an artist and filmmaker from Warsaw, currently based in Amsterdam. In their essay films and installations, they animate spectral realities sedimented within archives, investigating processes of standardized knowledge production. They studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, at the University of the Arts in Berlin, and at the Sandberg Instituut in Amsterdam. Their works have been shown in spaces such as the U-Jazdowski CCA in Warsaw, Dům Umění Mesta Brna in Brno and Het Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam, among others. Their work is currently supported by the Mondriaan Fund, Netherlands Film Fund and Stimuleringsfonds, and is distributed by Video Power and EYE Filmmuseum.

Filmography

2018 I didn’t go to Crimea and all I got was this alien message; video installation, 13 min. 2021 The House that Shadows Built; video installation, 18 min. 2024 Grandmamauntsistercat

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2024