How did it happen that you went into politics? What we see every day in the media is that this field does not present itself well, and is not connected with fair play and doing good things.
For me personally, policies and related actions are divided into several categories. The very word “politics” is not, for me, a concept that is absolutely clear. There is closed and isolated policy on general, global issues, which concerns the whole of humanity and our planet, and relations between states, nations, neighbours and so on.
The second trend that can be extracted is one that often leads to biased, dirty games between the political groups that want to have power in the country. And this is not something typical only of Poland, it is unfortunately the norm in every country in Europe and on other continents.
The third current concerns pro-citizenship, and identifying policy with the citizen directly. As a senator I care about the affairs of people who voted for me, who trusted me and expect me to cooperate and assist in solving their problems and issues. And that to me is an extremely interesting task, and a challenge in a good sense.
People have really big problems in very different issues, which come before me every day. To study them more deeply and become well acquainted with them, to check all the laws and regulations affecting them, will take time. Slowly, step by step, the case is digested, and this is followed by meetings with people who decide on a given topic. These are my next battles, conversations and arguments with the decision-makers, the people who have an impact on whether the case will ultimately be resolved favourably for the citizen, or whether it will fail somewhere because some official says, for example, that the provisions on something do not allow it. In this case we have another, higher authority that can intervene, such as the Ombudsman, the Ombudsman for Children or the Council of Lawyers, up to the highest level, that of the Ministry. And if you manage to solve the problem, which at first seemed too difficult, and not to pass on it, this is a great satisfaction.
In this regard, I am a person who likes to work alone. I do not like to be dependent on any person or group. I do not like someone to delay something, because if I think that the problem is worthy of attention and needs to be take care of, then I will bear full responsibility for finding the solution – I take it on the challenge, and I want to complete it.
My job, of course, is not all interventions, work in committees, and meetings with officials. On a daily basis I also participate in the local community life of my constituency (Warszawa-Śródmieście, Żoliborz, Bielany, Białołęka). We often we meet and talk about social issues or the architecture of these areas, the problems of the disabled or the elderly. I have worked for various charities, for the University of the Third Age, and meet with children from schools to discuss, for example, how to listen to music and poetry. There is always something to do.
As we also know, you happily support Poles living abroad.
Yes of course. For eight years I have been working on the Committee for Liaison with Poles Abroad and during that time we have, together with the Polish community, brought many projects to fruition, and initiated new contact and cooperation between different organisations.
In truth, many of these activities have been possible thanks to what I have done in my professional life, having worked in television for 40 years. The fact that my name is known, and that my work as a director is respected, means those who worked with me are able to assess my credibility objectively, and when I turn to them to ask for something, they never refuse.
An example is a story from a few years ago, when Polonia organisations from Italy told me that they had a problem with reading material. As a result, we created three Polish libraries together, and these still exist, in Reggio, Calabria and Milan. Moreover, we managed to do this completely without external financial support from outside. How? I wrote to Polish publishers of different kinds of books, from dictionaries and historical and academic publications to fiction and books for children, with a request and an appeal that it is our common goal and duty to help Poles create libraries. I worked on the the assumption that, with each new release, some of the newly-published books are earmarked for promotion and advertising purposes. There are probably no better people to receive the books for such purposes than Poles abroad. In response, eight or ten publishers declared their willingness to send their latest titles. And so boxes and books began to arrive in my office, and leading cultural organisations began to arrange for a room in which a library could be created.
Ms. Katarzyna Gralińska (of the Union of Poles in Calabria), a woman of incredible energy, went to talk to the mayor of Reggio. As a result, a room was made available in the beautiful Medici Palace, the seat of the mayor, in which books received from the publishers could be kept. Then there was the official opening in the presence of the mayor, and the Polish library operates there to this day.
You give smilar support to the Annual Festival of Polish Poetry for Children, “Wierszowisko”, organised in the Netherlands.
Exactly. In the same way, I persuaded publishers and Polonia Television to cooperate with the Dutch Wierszowisko. Thanks to the publishers, we always have prizes for all the children taking part in this competition, and also copies of books signed by the authors and festival guests. And the festival is also reported on TV Polonia.
There are similar situations in Lithuania, Germany and the Czech Republic. Almost no one knows that, in a tiny village in the Czech Republic called Wędryna, which consists of only a few houses, a fantastic Polish theatre operates. The villagers prepare really great shows. Through my many years working as a director, and thanks to my contacts with theatres I can get costumes for them from the Polish Theatre Studio in Vilnius. Then, in the village, grandmothers, mothers and aunts take them in and alter them for young and adult actors. Theatres in Warsaw, Katowice and Wrocław are happy to donate costumes after their premieres, and thereby to contribute to the cultivation of Polish culture among our compatriots abroad.
The same applies to the issue of Polish schools set up by parents, to which a lot of books and support are sent by film festival organisers. On the other side of the world I work with the Nike Foundation, which is creating a Polish Film Festival in Chicago and Los Angeles. I try to help them to bring the latest films that have won prizes at the Festival in Gdynia, and invitations to meet directors or producers.
And this is just my job as a senator, my policy. This work gives a lot of satisfaction and suits me well, because it does not involve any clash or struggle between different policies, the creation of new national borders or military affairs. It is about human relations, the “big little issues” and everyday concerns.
The activities of the Polish diaspora and Poles living abroad are inextricably linked to TV Polonia, of which you were the initiator and co-founder. How did TV Polonia begin?
The idea of creating TV Polonia emerged in the period in which there was a change in the political system, when it turned out that, suddenly, we did not know what was happening with our families abroad, and they did not know what was happening in our country.
Today nobody, especially the younger generation, remembers that no-one had a passport at home, and had to ask “graciously” at the police station for this to be provided, and for permission to leave. Nobody had a mobile phone that they could use to dial a loved one quickly and ask how they were. All telephone conversations had to be ordered [in advance], and one had to wait for the international operator.
Myself and my colleagues from TVP decided that there must be a television station to maintain contact with our compatriots who had left Poland for various reasons, and were scattered around the world.
In 1992 I wrote to the then president, Lech Wałęsa, and all the ministers, to say that there was a strong need, on the one hand, to enable Poles to be in contact with our compatriots living abroad through the medium of television, and on the other that it was our duty to do this. We declared that we did not want any money for it, only moral approval and support for our idea. Immediately, we got a positive response from the president and all the ministers, including the minister of foreign affairs, who made a statement about his readiness to help organise our activities.
And, as promised, we created Television Polonia. Most of the technical staff, journalists, light and sound engineers and camera operators were involved. We did a review of all warehoused equipment, for example television cameras, that were damaged but could be used for spares, and our engineers created from these three operational cameras. In the same way we prepared monitors and directors, the most important technical parts.
The issue of space was solved thanks to the editors of Television Theatre, which put at our disposal the rehearsal room “Krysia”. Our set designers prepared a studio there, and prepared our outside broadcast van. We thus had almost everything: three cameras, a director, a studio, an outside broadcast van and people. We lacked only the ability to send signals via satellite. Then, most frequencies belonged to the army and there were big problems with sharing them. I decided therefore to look for a satellite with a Polish-sounding name, and I found this thanks to the members of the board of Eutelsat. I called Ms. Romanowska, presenting the case and asking for her to act on our behalf to help us transmit for a month, to test whether the broadcast was being received and that we could get in touch with compatriots abroad.
Ms. Romanowska arranged us to have three months. In addition, we applied even to the European association of public television and radio stations – EBU [European Broadcasting Union] for an extension of that authorisation in order to be able to broadcast via satellite in all European countries. From the start, we had a permit for a half year of broadcasting, for free.
And so 23 October 1992 we aired the first programme on TV Polonia. We gave out a phone number with a request to those who viewed the programme. Upon completion of transmission, the phone rang; the first caller was a Pole living in Sweden, who was crying constantly with emotion. Everyone’s emotions were running high, so of course we started to cry too. I can say that the first few minutes of Television Polonia brought tears of joy, and as a result, TV Polonia became accepted by the broadcasting authority, which provided for the station’s functioning and financing from the state budget.
TV Polonia currently has 60 correspondents in different countries, and you can watch via satellite and on the internet. It has expanded to form newsgroup, Polonia24, and Halo Polonia, with direct connections to Poles living abroad. Apart from serials and movies, TV Polonia never fails to provide the audience with the traditional Monday Television Theatre, with excellent performances by our actors.
And what do you thing of the new Television Theatre productions?
I do not want to be accused of excessive attachment to tradition, but for me a lot of them are theatre television in every sense of the word. Television Theatre was established as a completely new form of combination of theatre and film, thanks to which we are not constrained by a theatre stage position in relation to the audience. Nor is it a film in which the director takes the decision about what we see and there is no other way to tell the story. Television Theatre is a combination of the two forms. We do not need to be in the theatre to watch, we can be at home, with the whole family as the audience, but at the same time there are elements of film, so we can go beyond the stage, outside the theatre, somewhere in the open air, and so on.
Some modern television theatre I like very much. It has come to the fore in the generation of film and theatre, which presents its own perspective and proves that this art form does not become dated, but is constantly expanding, evolving and has ahead of it the opportunities to integrate many achievements of modern techniques, technology and animation with the performances.
Would you like to do again your own production?
I must say that sometimes I even dream that I’m back in the studio and preparing a live production.
On what was the success of this theatre made live based? The emotions that swept over the whole team. As we know, one person cannot do television, you need a good team. One person can conceive an idea or direct the group, but they cannot achieve anything alone. There must be a team.
In doing my own television theatre, I have recorded more than 200 productions. I have always worked with one team – camera operator, costume designer, director etc., not from laziness, but because it was such a harmonious team and we understood each other perfectly, so it was easier for us to work. Secondly, I was sure that all were fully responsible for what they did, and that I could count on them. I knew that none of them were easy on themselves, and did not give anything less than their best. These were people who were extremely involved and giving a hundred per cent to this – they were positively live wires of preparedness. Such emotions work well with the actors who identify with this team, and as a result there goes into the studio a large television family of actors and crew. Then, leaving the studio, we all throw ourselves into each other’s arms, thanking and congratulating each other. These are wonderful moments that make everything worthwhile. Such theatre I would gladly do.
Then this is what we wish for you. Thank you very much for the interview.
Photo © Rafał Latoszek