Zbig Rybczynski

(Łódź, Poland, 1949)

Filmmaker recognized for his innovative audiovisual techniques and for his pioneering experimentation in the field of new image technologies. The use of those visual effects in a more sensitive and poetic way was questioned. He studied at the Lódz Cinematography School, his videographic pieces are plastically and technically amazing. After producing several experimental short films, including Zupa (Soup) 1974, Lokomotywa (Locomotive) 1975 and Mein Fenster (My Window) 1979, he produces and directs, together with the avant-garde group Warsztat Formy Filmowej for SE-MA-FOR Studios, the short film that would launch him to fame and with which he would win the Oscar in 1980: Tango. A short film whose formal proposal revolutionized its time and that opened the doors of the new era of the Video-Clip. In it, Zbig drew and painted nearly 16,000 cell-mattes (set backgrounds on which the 36 characters wandering around the same room are cut out) and then printed them manually frame by frame, exposing the 35mm film hundreds of thousands of times. until forming this unique piece. Between 1985 and 2013, Zbig worked in the United States, Germany and Poland developing innovative methods and systems for the production of visual special effects. His main contribution during this period was the development of a one-of-a-kind film studio, equipped with electronic technology, to create and composite multi-layer images in real time. In 1990 he created the piece The Orchestra, for which he won an Emmy.

'The Discreet Charm of the Diplomacy' was screened at MediaLab, portraying pompous diplomats celebrating a surreal banquet. As the dinner progresses, a noisy procession of farm animals passes along the underside of the sumptuously set table. From time to time, one of the guests dressed in black tie slips under the table to join the animal parade.