Antoni Bohdziewicz (11 September 1906 – 20 October 1970) was a Polish screenplay writer and director, best known for his 1956 adaptation of '' Zemsta'' by

Aleksander Fredro Aleksander Fredro (20 June 1793 – 15 July 1876) was a Polish poet, playwright and Polish authors, author active during Romanticism in Poland, Polish Romanticism in the Partitions of Poland, period of partitions by neighboring empires. His works ...

. Bohdziewicz was born in the city of Vilna (modern Vilnius), then part of the

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 ...

. In 1928, he graduated from the Technical Faculty of the Warsaw University of Technology and was simultaneously studying at the Faculty of Humanities of the Stefan Batory University. In 1928, he became a speaker at the newly established branch of the Polish Radio in his native city. In 1931 however he obtained a state scholarship and left for France. In Paris he joined the prestigious ''Ecole Technique de Photographie et de Cinématographie'', where he also made his first documentaries. In 1935, he returned to Poland and worked as a journalist and cameraman for the state-owned Polska Agencja Telegraficzna Film Chronicle (PAT), the most popular

newsreel A newsreel is a form of short documentary film, containing news, news stories and items of topical interest, that was prevalent between the 1910s and the mid 1970s. Typically presented in a Movie theater, cinema, newsreels were a source of cu ...

in Poland. He also worked as a journalist and columnist for the "Pion" weekly. In late 1930s he made numerous documentaries for the PAT agency, as well as for the SAF film studio. In 1939, he began working on 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 ...

'' Zazdrość i medycyna'', based on a novel by Michał Choromański. However, the shooting was interrupted by the outbreak of the

Invasion of Poland (1939) The invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, and Polish Defensive War of 1939 (1 September – 6 October 1939), was a joint attack on the Second Polish Republic, Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak R ...

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

he was an active member of the

Home Army The Home Army (, ; abbreviated AK) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) established in the ...

and collaborated with the Bureau of Information and Propaganda as the head of the photo and film department. In 1943, he also started a ''Tres'' photographic studio in Warsaw, which became a clandestine outpost of the Home Army. During the

Warsaw Uprising The Warsaw Uprising (; ), sometimes referred to as the August Uprising (), or the Battle of Warsaw, was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance movement in World War II, Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from ...

he became the head of the group of cameramen to prepare daily newsreels and was one of the people to prepare '' Warszawa walczy'', a documentary filmed and shown entirely in besieged Warsaw. After the war he continued his career in the same role and became one of the first members of the Polish Film Chronicle (PKF) company. Working in

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

, already in March 1945 he started a Film Atelier for the Youth, the first film school to be opened in Poland after the end of the German occupation. In December of that year he converted his atelier into a regular study, which became a direct predecessor of the Kraków Film School. In 1948 he moved to

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 ...

, where he became the chairman of the Department of Direction of the National Film School. In that role he became a teacher of several generations of Polish film directors. He also remained an active director himself. His first film, '' 2*2=4'', was released already in 1945 and was among the first feature films to be shot in Poland after World War II. Between 1956 and 1962 Bohdziewicz served as an artistic director of the ''Droga Film Team'' and then the TOR Film Studio (1968–1970). Simultaneously he was also a teacher at the

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

-based '' Institut National Supérieur des Arts du Spectacle''. He died on 20 October 1970 in Warsaw.

References

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Antoni Bohdziewicz
at Filmpolski.pl *

at the wiem.onet.pl encyclopaedia {{DEFAULTSORT:Bohdziewicz, Antoni 1906 births 1970 deaths Writers from Vilnius People from Vilna Governorate Polish film directors Warsaw University of Technology alumni Home Army members Vilnius University alumni 20th-century Polish screenwriters Polish male screenwriters 20th-century Polish male writers Photographers from Vilnius Recipients of the Medal of the 10th Anniversary of the People's Republic of Poland