A GOODBYE | GIRL IN A BLUE DRESS, 5min, 16mm, 2025©
A Goodbye- a girl in A blue dress- is a 5-minute 16mm film that opens with the line: Leaving came with a feeling, before the words, before the knowing.
Shot in colour in 1978, the footage shows a family preparing to take their leave, surrounded by loved ones. At the centre is a girl in a blue dress, visibly distressed. She hides behind her parents, turning her face from the camera. Her refusal to be seen, particularly to be seen upset, becomes the emotional core of the film. Still images held as the 16mm film camera rolls, leave an after-trace on screen, suggesting a fractured self: part here, part already gone. These images are interwoven with diagrams from an amateur film-processing manual, echoing the imperfect recording of emotion and memory in colour film. A sparse soundscape of pizzicato strings, sustained tones and a distant Gregorian chant, recorded recently in a Warsaw chapel, deepens the atmosphere. The film reflects on the quiet ruptures of migration and the lingering imprint of farewell.
Mairéad McClean, copyright 2025
Archive Footage from The Bujnowscy Family, The Archive of Home Movies held at Muzeum Sztuki Nowoczesnej w Warszawie. The film was commissioned by The Wapping Project and co-commissioned by Muzeum Sztuki Nowoczesnej w Warszawie supported by the British Council through UK/Poland Season 2025.
PREMIERE:KINO Muzeum Sztuki Nowoczesnej w Warszawie screened as a short before five of DAVID LYNCH films, JULY 2025
