“Tychy from A to Z”
awarded at the FilmAT Festival 2024!
During the award ceremony of the 19th FilmAT Festival, at Warsaw’s Museum of Sport and Tourism, the first prize in the City Promotion category went to the film “Tychy from A to Z.”
The goal of the award-winning film was to show a city combining tradition and modernity. Thus, key tourist attractions, cultural sites and modern infrastructure were presented. The authors of the idea, wanted to create a film showing a city that has a lot of potential and is able to offer a lot to both residents and visitors. Agnieszka Seidel-Kożuch, a Tychy native who graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice with a degree in graphic design, and HOLE Films Creative Film Agency were invited to work on the project.
The premiere of the film took place at the Tychy Gala of Culture – March 21, 2024 – during the presentation of the Tychy Mayor’s Awards in the field of culture.
The film is one of the elements of building the identity and identification of residents with the city and is part of the new visual identity of the city, developed from 2021.
Tychy, a complex and collage city
The film is a collage that presents in a dynamic way the diversity of the city, which is co-created by people, places, institutions and events. The title “Tychy from A to Z” is not just a play on words, but refers to the urban planning concept of architects Hanna and Kazimierz Wejchert, whose image appears in the first frame of the film. Those who live in Tychy, or are at least a little familiar with the history of the city’s formation, know that the city, or rather its new part, was designed on drawing boards, and the names of the various neighborhoods are successive letters of the alphabet that are also abbreviations of female names.
In the minds of urban planners and architects of the time, Tychy appeared as a place not only modern, but also comfortable to live in. Visual artists, outstanding architects, mosaic specialists and sculptors were often invited to create the city. Each neighborhood was to be self-sufficient, with its own market or square, library or other place with cultural and educational offerings.
The city is arranged in this way to this day, and its unique character is what sets it apart and is a source of pride for those who live here.
The starting point
This uniqueness, the distinctive socialist-postmodern beauty, natural, greenery, was one of the starting points when working on the script. Another was, of course, the residents themselves, their beloved places, passions and activities.
The filmmakers wanted everything important and characteristic of the city to find its place in the film – so the authors of the concept of the city of New Tychy – Hanna and Kazimierz Wejchertow – were shown, as well as fragments of the A settlement, the Church of the Holy Spirit with polychromies by prof. Jerzy Nowosielski, the sculptures of Augustyn Dyrda, the award-winning Marina on Lake Paprocany, the sail from the Labor Song Harbor, Musical Evenings on the Lake, the Andromeda Cultural Passage, AUKSO – the Chamber Orchestra of the City of Tychy, the mosaics of Franciszek Wyleżuch and the murals of the Czary-Mury duo, and the monument to bluesman Rysiek Riedel.
The letters
The film begins and ends with a panoramic view of the city – in the first frame, a wide shot of the Tychy housing estates, along with a collage showing the Wejchert couple, while the last shot shows the characteristic buildings with towers on Baczyński Square.
The journey continues to the A as ANNA housing estate – a unique in the country socialist realist mining settlement, then we visit the Tyskie Książęce Brewery or the Holy Spirit Church with polychromies by Prof. Jerzy Nowosielski, among others.
Other landmarks of the city include: Augustyn Dyrda – sculptor, Marek Moś – conductor, artistic director of AUKSO – the Chamber Orchestra of the City of Tychy, and Ryszard Riedel – singer, leader of the blues band DŻEM.
The camera leads the viewer’s eye through streets, parks, forests and Lake Paprocany, peeks into the training sessions of professional athletes, peeps at musicians during rehearsal, and films the residents’ favorite sports and leisure activities.
– The citizens of Tychy love their city and strongly identify with it. Therefore, the film shows both the beauty of the city – its landscape, landmarks, greenery, parks, forest, recreation places, but also places important for soccer and field hockey fans or showcases of Tychy’s industry – the Brewery and the Special Economic Zone with the largest production plants. The film received a very positive response from residents, which the latter expressed in numerous comments on social media, says Maciej Gramatyka, Tychy’s president.
This vivid urban collage is complemented by animations by Tychy-based artist Agnieszka Seidel-Kożuch, which present details characteristic for Tychy and thus enrich the subsequent shots. This type of solution, that is, combining the work of filmmakers with that of a graphic artist, was quite risky and innovative, and working on the material, was quite a challenge for the creators, but observing the reactions of the audience, it can be considered a success.
The Collage Creation Process
– I have been creating in the graphic design and photography space for years, but it is a digital collage that has become my favorite form of expression. It’s not just a technique – it’s a way of looking at the world, where details come together in a harmonious whole. In my works I primarily use my own photographs, which I transform with extreme meticulousness and attention to detail.
The city of Tychy saw potential in my collages, but also in my person – not only a native of Tychy, but an artist deeply rooted in the local culture. From there came the idea to create a visual tribute to Tychy.
It was quite a challenge to transfer my vision of “animated” collages to a moving image in a film. Each photo had to undergo meticulous processing: color, graphics and composition. Some shots required incredible precision – like the scene in Baczyński Square, which, spread over 544 frames, was hand-cut, outlined and supplemented with additional elements” – Agnieszka Seidel-Kożuch recalls.
The rhythm of the city
It was also the intention of the filmmakers to show the dynamics of the city, hence the picture is interspersed with shots shot using advanced filming techniques. The use of modern film equipment, hyperlapse technology and high-definition cameras, drone shots that show spectacular views of the city panorama, as well as dynamic editing and smooth transitions between scenes give the film an energetic rhythm, reflecting the pulsating nature of the city.
– Our goal was to capture the unique character of Tychy in an original way, showing both the historical roots and the dynamic cultural development of the city” – says Bartek Bala, co-founder and creative producer of HOLE Films.
– The film is a combination of modern filmmaking techniques, including the use of specialized film equipment to create POV-style shots – from the protagonist’s perspective. We used advanced stabilizers, including a cinematic, sports helmet, which allowed us to capture dynamic, fluid camera movements. Most of the shots were also meticulously planned in our HOLE Films team, at the pre-production stage for the film, so that the technique of combining them in the edit with animated collages, made by an artist, was possible. In my opinion, the City of Tychy is full of visually inspiring places, which definitely made it easier for us to capture the beauty of the city with the eye of the camera” – adds Łukasz Dambiec, cinematographer and editor of the film, from HOLE Films Creative Film Agency.
Also noteworthy is the energetic music and soundtrack created for the film, with composer Grzegorz Jurczyk giving it an urban, sound effects-filled sound that not only complements the picture, but also harmonizes with it, enhancing the impression of the city’s dynamism and modernity.
We invite you to watch this award-winning production:
Text: Department of Information, Promotion and Foreign Cooperation
Tychy City Hall
Photos: Stills from the film “Tychy from A to Z”