Aleksander Ford (born Mosze Lifszyc; 24 November 1908 in

Kiev Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

– 4 April 1980 in

Naples, Florida Naples is a city in Collier County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 19,115, down from 19,539 at the 2010 census. Naples is a principal city of the Collier County, Florida, Naples–Marc ...

U.S. The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...

) was a Polish

film director A film director or filmmaker is a person who controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfillment of that Goal, vision. The director has a key role ...

and head of the Polish People's Army Film Crew in the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

during World War II. Following the war, he was appointed director of the

Film Polski Film Polski (also Przedsiębiorstwo Państwowe Film Polski) was the state-run film production and distribution organization of Poland, founded in 1945. History On November 13, 1945, the postwar communist government decreed the formation of Pols ...

company. In 1948 he was appointed a professor of the

National Film School in Łódź National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ...

(Państwowa Wyższa Szkoła Filmowa).

Roman Polanski Raymond Roman Thierry Polański (; born 18 August 1933) is a Polish and French filmmaker and actor. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Roman Polanski, numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, three Britis ...

and Polish film director

Andrzej Wajda Andrzej Witold Wajda (; 6 March 1926 – 9 October 2016) was a Polish film and theatre director. Recipient of an Honorary Oscar, the Palme d'Or, as well as Honorary Golden Lion and Honorary Golden Bear Awards, he was a prominent member of the "P ...

were among his students. Amid an

anti-Semitic Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

purge in the communist party in Poland, Ford was stopped from preparing a film on the life of a Jewish educator. Shortly afterwards he emigrated to

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

in 1968 and from there to the United States, going through

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

and

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

. He took his own life in 1980 in Naples, Florida.Dr. Edyta Gawron, Department of Jewish Studies,

Jagiellonian University The Jagiellonian University (, UJ) is a public research university in Kraków, Poland. Founded in 1364 by Casimir III the Great, King Casimir III the Great, it is the oldest university in Poland and one of the List of oldest universities in con ...

, Kraków
"Contemporary history of Jews in Poland (1945-2005) – as Depicted in the Film."
PDF file (direct download): 194.7 KB. Retrieved June 24, 2012.

Professional career

Ford made his first

feature film A feature film or feature-length film (often abbreviated to feature), also called a theatrical film, is a film (Film, motion picture, "movie" or simply “picture”) with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole present ...

, '' Mascotte'' in 1930, after a year of making short

silent film A silent film is a film without synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, w ...

s. He did not use sound until ''The Legion of the Streets'' (1932). In 1932 he directed one of the first movies made about the Jewish

Yishuv The Yishuv (), HaYishuv Ha'ivri (), or HaYishuv HaYehudi Be'Eretz Yisra'el () was the community of Jews residing in Palestine prior to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. The term came into use in the 1880s, when there were about 2 ...

Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

, ''

Sabra Sabra may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Sabra (character), a fictional Israeli female superhero in the Marvel Comics universe * Sabra (magazine), a Japanese magazine for men * ''Sabra Command'' the original title of the film ''Warhead'' * ...

''. When World War II began, Ford escaped to the Soviet Union and worked closely with Jerzy Bossak to establish a film unit for the Soviet-sponsored People's Army of Poland in the USSR. The unit was called ''Czołówka Filmowa Ludowego Wojska Polskiego'' (or simply ''Czołówka''; spearhead). After the war, Ford was appointed head of the government-controlled

and held enormous sway over the country's entire film industry. In the process of accumulating power, he denounced a fellow film director Jerzy Gabryelski to the Soviet

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...

secret police, contentiously accusing him of "reactionary" and "antisemitic" views, which resulted in Gabryelski's arrest and torture.Marek Chodakiewicz: After the Holocaust. Polish - Jewish relations 1944-1947. Ford and a group of colleagues from the Polish Communist Party rebuilt most of the country's film production infrastructure.

wrote in his biography about them: ''"They included some extremely competent people, notably Aleksander Ford, a veteran party member, who was then an orthodox

Stalinist Stalinism (, ) is the totalitarian means of governing and Marxist–Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union (USSR) from 1927 to 1953 by dictator Joseph Stalin and in Soviet satellite states between 1944 and 1953. Stalinism in ...

. ��The real power broker during the immediate postwar period was Ford himself, who established a small film empire of his own."'' For the next twenty years, Ford served as a professor at the state-run National Film School in

Łódź Łódź is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located south-west of Warsaw. Łódź has a population of 655,279, making it the country's List of cities and towns in Polan ...

(Państwowa Wyższa Szkoła Filmowa). He is perhaps best remembered for directing the first postwar documentary ''Majdanek - cmentarzysko Europy'' (Majdanek – the Cemetery of Europe) and the feature film ''

Knights of the Teutonic Order The Teutonic Order is a religious order (Catholic), Catholic religious institution founded as a military order (religious society), military society in Acre, Israel, Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. The Order of Brothers of the German House of Sa ...

'' (1960), based on a novel of the same name by Polish author

Henryk Sienkiewicz Henryk Adam Aleksander Pius Sienkiewicz ( , ; 5 May 1846 – 15 November 1916), also known by the pseudonym Litwos (), was a Polish epic writer. He is remembered for his historical novels, such as The Trilogy, the Trilogy series and especially ...

. Ford, a self-identified

Communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

, used his films to "express social messages on the screen," as in his documentaries: the award-winning ''Legion ulicy'', (The Street Legion, 1932), ''Children Must Laugh'' (1936) and the postwar ''Eighth Day of the Week'' (1958) rejected by the communist party censors during the

Polish October The Polish October ( ), also known as the Polish thaw or Gomułka's thaw, also "small stabilization" () was a change in the politics of the Polish People's Republic that occurred in October 1956. Władysław Gomułka was appointed First Secretar ...

. Ford continued making films in Poland until the

1968 Polish political crisis A series of major student, intellectual and other protests against the ruling Polish United Workers' Party of the Polish People's Republic took place in Poland in March 1968. The crisis led to the suppression of student strikes by security forces ...

. Accused of antisocialist activity and expelled from the Communist Party, Ford emigrated to Israel where he lived for the next two years. He later moved to Denmark and eventually settled in the United States. Ford made two more feature films, both of which were commercial and critical failures. In 1973, he made a film adaptation of

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn. (11 December 1918 – 3 August 2008) was a Soviet and Russian author and Soviet dissidents, dissident who helped to raise global awareness of political repression in the Soviet Union, especially the Gulag pris ...

's novel ''

The First Circle ''In the First Circle'' (; also published as ''The First Circle'') is a novel by Russian writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, released in 1968. A more complete version of the book was published in English in 2009. The novel depicts the lives of the o ...

'', a Danish-Swedish production that recounted the horrors of the Soviet

gulag The Gulag was a system of Labor camp, forced labor camps in the Soviet Union. The word ''Gulag'' originally referred only to the division of the Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies, Soviet secret police that was in charge of runnin ...

. In 1974 he made ', an English language, Israeli-German co-production based on the heroic story of Dr.

Janusz Korczak Janusz Korczak, the pen name of Henryk Goldszmit (22 July 1878 or 1879 – 7 August 1942), was a Polish Jewish pediatrician, educator, children's author and pedagogue known as ''Pan Doktor'' ("Mr. Doctor") or ''Stary Doktor'' ("Old Doctor"). He ...

. Blacklisted by the Polish

communist government A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state in which the totality of the power belongs to a party adhering to some form of Marxism–Leninism, a branch of the communist ideology. Marxism–Leninism was ...

as a political defector, Ford became a non-person in contemporary discussions and analysis of Polish filmmaking. He committed suicide in a Florida hotel on 4 April 1980.Anna Misiak
"Politically Involved Filmmaker: Aleksander Ford and Film Censorship in Poland after 1945", ''Kinema'', 2003
/ref>

Selected filmography

* ' (1974) * ''

'' (1973) * '' The Doctor Speaks Out'' (1966) * ''

The First Day of Freedom ''The First Day of Freedom'' () is a 1964 Polish drama film directed by Aleksander Ford. It was entered into the 1965 Cannes Film Festival. Cast * Tadeusz Łomnicki - Lt. Jan * Beata Tyszkiewicz - Inga Rhode * Tadeusz Fijewski - Dr. Rhode * Rys ...

'' (''Pierwszy dzień wolności'', 1964) * ''

'' (''Krzyżacy'', 1960) * '' The Eighth Day of the Week'' (''Ósmy dzień tygodnia'', 1959) * ''

Five Boys from Barska Street ''Five Boys from Barska Street'' () is a 1954 Polish drama film directed by Aleksander Ford, based on the 1952 novel of the same name by Kazimierz Koźniewski. It was awarded the International Prize at the 1954 Cannes Film Festival. Plot Five y ...

'' (''Piątka z ulicy Barskiej'', 1954) * '' Youth of Chopin'' (''Młodość Chopina'', 1952) * ''

Border Street ''Border Street'' () is a 1948 Polish drama film directed by Aleksander Ford and starring Mieczysława Ćwiklińska, Jerzy Leszczyński (actor), Jerzy Leszczyński, Jerzy Złotnicki and Władysław Godik. The film depicts the Nazis' purge of Warsa ...

'' (''Ulica Graniczna'', 1949) * ''Majdanek: Cemetery of Europe'' (''Majdanek - cmentarzysko Europy'', 1945) * ''Children Must Laugh'' (''Droga młodych'', original yiddish title: '' Mir kumen on'', 1936) * ''

Granny Had No Worries ''Granny Had No Worries'' () is a 1935 Polish comedy film directed by Aleksander Ford and Michał Waszyński.

'' (''Nie miała baba kłopotu'', 1935, co-directed with

Michał Waszyński Michał Waszyński (29 September 1904 – 20 February 1965) was first a film director in Poland, then in Italy, and later (as Michael Waszynski) a film producer, producer of major United States, American films, mainly in Spain. Known for h ...

) * ''

'' (1933) * ''Legion of the Streets'' (''Legion Ulicy'', 1932) * '' Mascotte'' (1930)

References

External links

*
Knights of the Teutonic Order - Aleksander Ford
at Culture.pl {{DEFAULTSORT:Ford, Aleksander 1908 births 1980 deaths Artists who died by suicide Polish film directors Jews from the Russian Empire Recipients of the Order of Polonia Restituta (1944–1989) Recipients of the Order of the Banner of Work Jewish film people Film people from Kyiv 1980 suicides Suicides by hanging in Florida Polish emigrants to the United States

Professional career

Selected filmography

See also

References

External links