Vampires, It’s Nothing To Laugh At,
Film by Kinga Michalska
36min, Documentary, Canada, 2023
World premiere: Visions du Réel
Trailer: https://vimeo.com/1056776869
Rent: https://www.tenk.ca/en/documentaires/essay/vampires-its-nothing-to-laugh-at
In the 1960s, an anthropologist thinks he has discovered the existence of a vampire woman in a Kashub community in Wilno, Ontario. Kinga Michalska returns to the village still recovering from the trauma of this coverage, using a skillful blend of archival footage and performance to question the relationship between lived reality and scientific "truth". The film is a critical reflection on how we tell stories of others and asks who is the real vampire - the scientist, the audience, the tourists, the community or the filmmaker themself?
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Screening history
2023 Visions du Réel, International Film Festival, International Medium Length Film Competition - Special Mention, Nyon, Switzerland (World Premiere)
2023 Short Waves Film Festival, International Competition, Poznan, Poland
2023 Festival De Nouveau Cinéma, National Short Film Competition, Montréal, Canada
2023 DMZ DOCS International Documentary Film Festival, Goyang-si, South Korea
2023 30_____70 DOC FEST, Lago, Italy
2023 Muzeum Piśmiennictwa i Muzyki Kaszubsko-Pomorskiej w Wejherowie, Kaszubskie Wampiry, Kaszëbë
2024 InScience Film Festival, Nijmegen, Netherlands
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Film by Kinga Michalska
36min, Documentary, Canada, 2023
World premiere: Visions du Réel
Trailer: https://vimeo.com/1056776869
Rent: https://www.tenk.ca/en/documentaires/essay/vampires-its-nothing-to-laugh-at
In the 1960s, an anthropologist thinks he has discovered the existence of a vampire woman in a Kashub community in Wilno, Ontario. Kinga Michalska returns to the village still recovering from the trauma of this coverage, using a skillful blend of archival footage and performance to question the relationship between lived reality and scientific "truth". The film is a critical reflection on how we tell stories of others and asks who is the real vampire - the scientist, the audience, the tourists, the community or the filmmaker themself?
Screening history
2023 Visions du Réel, International Film Festival, International Medium Length Film Competition - Special Mention, Nyon, Switzerland (World Premiere)
2023 Short Waves Film Festival, International Competition, Poznan, Poland
2023 Festival De Nouveau Cinéma, National Short Film Competition, Montréal, Canada
2023 DMZ DOCS International Documentary Film Festival, Goyang-si, South Korea
2023 30_____70 DOC FEST, Lago, Italy
2023 Muzeum Piśmiennictwa i Muzyki Kaszubsko-Pomorskiej w Wejherowie, Kaszubskie Wampiry, Kaszëbë
2024 InScience Film Festival, Nijmegen, Netherlands
Upiór and Guests
This 3-channel installation uses the figure of a Slavic vampire as a metaphor for migrant identity and otherness. The work explores the notions of truth and fiction by examining various tools and systems of power that seem to allow us to distinguish one from the other. The piece explores issues of colonialism, academic classism and ethics of representation. It tells a story of losing one’s identity and reinventing oneself anew.
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Discomfort of Evening, installation view, Zachęta National Gallery, curated by Magdalena Komornicka, Warsaw 2022, photo by Hanna Linkowska.
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Discomfort of Evening, installation view, Zachęta National Gallery, curated by Magdalena Komornicka, Warsaw 2022, photo by Tytus Szabelski.
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Discomfort of Evening, installation view, Zachęta National Gallery, curated by Magdalena Komornicka, Warsaw 2022, photo by Hanna Linkowska.
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Discomfort of Evening, installation view, Zachęta National Gallery, curated by Magdalena Komornicka, Warsaw 2022, photo by Hanna Linkowska.
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Installation View, Have You Ever Seen a Ghost?, DMZ DOCS Festival, Korea.
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Installation view, Upiór and Guests, Bande Video, Quebec, 2023.
This 3-channel installation uses the figure of a Slavic vampire as a metaphor for migrant identity and otherness. The work explores the notions of truth and fiction by examining various tools and systems of power that seem to allow us to distinguish one from the other. The piece explores issues of colonialism, academic classism and ethics of representation. It tells a story of losing one’s identity and reinventing oneself anew.
Discomfort of Evening, installation view, Zachęta National Gallery, curated by Magdalena Komornicka, Warsaw 2022, photo by Hanna Linkowska.
Discomfort of Evening, installation view, Zachęta National Gallery, curated by Magdalena Komornicka, Warsaw 2022, photo by Tytus Szabelski.
Discomfort of Evening, installation view, Zachęta National Gallery, curated by Magdalena Komornicka, Warsaw 2022, photo by Hanna Linkowska.
Discomfort of Evening, installation view, Zachęta National Gallery, curated by Magdalena Komornicka, Warsaw 2022, photo by Hanna Linkowska.
Installation View, Have You Ever Seen a Ghost?, DMZ DOCS Festival, Korea.
Installation view, Upiór and Guests, Bande Video, Quebec, 2023.Diary
Photographic series
2013-now
I started this series when I first arrived in Tiohtià:ke/Montreal. Having left Poland in part due to the political climat, I intuitively started documenting my life in a new place. Photography has been my tool for facilitating connections as I coutinue to cultivate a new queer community. A collection of video portraits and intimate photographs and writings, Diary is a queer meditation on home, love, and kinship. This work has been shown in gallery settings in Montreal, London, Warsaw, Kraków, and Poznań. In 2021, the series received an honorable mention at the TIFF Open competition at the Polish Photography Festival.
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Installation view “Poganki”, curated by Agnieszka Rayzacher, lokal_30, Warsaw 2021, phot. Marcin Liminowicz.
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Installation view “Poganki”, curated by Agnieszka Rayzacher, lokal_30, Warsaw 2021, phot. Marcin Liminowicz.
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Installation view “Poganki”, curated by Agnieszka Rayzacher, lokal_30, Warsaw 2021, phot. Marcin Liminowicz.
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Installation view, Queer Gaze from Poland:
Portrait of Love and Desire, curated by Grażyna Siedlecka, Bermondsay
Project Space, London, UK
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Winnie, Gen and Bean
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10 Pine
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Sarah, Bear, Bunny, Small Phoque, Big Phoque and Bat.
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Be and Lee
Photographic series
2013-now
I started this series when I first arrived in Tiohtià:ke/Montreal. Having left Poland in part due to the political climat, I intuitively started documenting my life in a new place. Photography has been my tool for facilitating connections as I coutinue to cultivate a new queer community. A collection of video portraits and intimate photographs and writings, Diary is a queer meditation on home, love, and kinship. This work has been shown in gallery settings in Montreal, London, Warsaw, Kraków, and Poznań. In 2021, the series received an honorable mention at the TIFF Open competition at the Polish Photography Festival.
Installation view “Poganki”, curated by Agnieszka Rayzacher, lokal_30, Warsaw 2021, phot. Marcin Liminowicz.
Installation view “Poganki”, curated by Agnieszka Rayzacher, lokal_30, Warsaw 2021, phot. Marcin Liminowicz.
Installation view “Poganki”, curated by Agnieszka Rayzacher, lokal_30, Warsaw 2021, phot. Marcin Liminowicz.
Installation view, Queer Gaze from Poland:
Portrait of Love and Desire, curated by Grażyna Siedlecka, Bermondsay
Project Space, London, UK
Winnie, Gen and Bean
10 Pine
Sarah, Bear, Bunny, Small Phoque, Big Phoque and Bat. 
Be and Lee
Navid
Carmen
Guy and Jamaal
Sarah’s ferns
Crystal’s wig
Moe
Andy
Eliane’s bananas
George, Pomona and Rose
Candi
Alice, Navid and Nima
Sarah Mo
Kinga
Parents
Naomi and Kai
Jordan Brown
Lactatia and Crystal
Vanja
Jamaal
Winnie
E.
Kai and Naomi
10 Pine
Lari
Installation view “The Kitchen”, curated by Polana Institute, The
Clay, Warsaw Gallery Weekend, Warsaw 2020
Installation view, MFA Open Studios 2018
Installation view, MFA Open Studios 2018Film by Kinga Michalska
102min, Documentary, Canada, 2025
World premiere: Berlinale Panorama, 2025
Upcoming screenings: DOXA (Canada), Millenium Docs (Poland)
Trailer: https://vimeo.com/1056776869
Bedrock is a psychological journey across today’s Poland that weaves together stories of Poles living on Holocaust sites. Through a series of intimate encounters, this poetic film looks at the unsettling contradictions people learn to live with.
Crew
Writing : Kinga Michalska
Cinematography : Hanna Linkowska
Sound Recording : Peter Hošták, Janusz Dąbkiewicz
Editing : Omar Elhamy, Paul Chotel
Sound Design and mix : Alex Lane
Music : Radwan Ghazi Moumneh
Color grading : Philippe Carbonneau
Researcher: Leora Alcheck
Dramaturg: Sarah Chouinard-Poirier
Production : Paul Cadieux, Danae Elon, Ashley Duong
Executive Production : Anna Gawlita, Katarina Soukup
International distribution: Filmoption International
Canadian distribution: Film du 3 Mars
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Writing : Kinga Michalska
Cinematography : Hanna Linkowska
Sound Recording : Peter Hošták, Janusz Dąbkiewicz
Editing : Omar Elhamy, Paul Chotel
Sound Design and mix : Alex Lane
Music : Radwan Ghazi Moumneh
Color grading : Philippe Carbonneau
Researcher: Leora Alcheck
Dramaturg: Sarah Chouinard-Poirier
Production : Paul Cadieux, Danae Elon, Ashley Duong
Executive Production : Anna Gawlita, Katarina Soukup
International distribution: Filmoption International
Canadian distribution: Film du 3 Mars
Montreal 2017-18
This project is an ongoing series of video portraits in which I film people from my community connected and connecting through queer kinship in moments of care. My videos are constructed using mini DV tapes and shot in queer domestic spaces to reclaim this format for non-heteronormative storytelling and alternative family models. I formally address the subject of chosen family by referring to home videos which were traditionally used by straight middle-class families. Featuring: Candi, Lactatia and Coriander, Jordan Brown, George, Pomona and Rose, Shahir, Zev and Jack. Excerpt: https://vimeo.com/312195431
Does Care Have a Gender? is also a zine! It is comprised of diary entries, interviews and photographs exploring intersections of queerness, family and care. Message me for a free PDF or support my work through ordering a phisical copy :)
Candi
Zine “Does Care Have a Gender” at “Queer Gaze from Poland:
Portrait of Love and Desire", curated by Grażyna Siedlecka, Bermondsay
Project Space, London, UK
Photo credit: B. Brookbank
Contact
Kinga Michalska (they/them)
kingamichalska@yahoo.com
ig @kinga.mi.666
I’m a Polish queer filmmaker and visual artist based in Tiohtiá:ke, Mooniyang, Montreal. I use mediums of photography, film and video installation to examine shared cultural spaces such as home, kinship, land, memory and hauntings through a feminist lens. I am interested in the periphery of what and who makes history: amateur historians, geological processes, personal archives, oral history and speculative fictions.
I hold an MFA in Photography from Concordia University and a BA in Cultural Studies from the University of Warsaw. My work has been presented in many festivals and exhibitions around the world including Canada, Poland, South Korea, UK, Switzerland, France, Italy, Netherlands and Germany. My work has been generously supported by Canada Arts Council, CALQ, Catapult Film Fund, Sodec, Telefilm Canada and Peter S. Reeds Foundation.
My debut feature documentary BEDROCK had its premiere at Berlinale Film Festival 2025.
Kinga Michalska (they/them)
kingamichalska@yahoo.com
ig @kinga.mi.666
I’m a Polish queer filmmaker and visual artist based in Tiohtiá:ke, Mooniyang, Montreal. I use mediums of photography, film and video installation to examine shared cultural spaces such as home, kinship, land, memory and hauntings through a feminist lens. I am interested in the periphery of what and who makes history: amateur historians, geological processes, personal archives, oral history and speculative fictions.
I hold an MFA in Photography from Concordia University and a BA in Cultural Studies from the University of Warsaw. My work has been presented in many festivals and exhibitions around the world including Canada, Poland, South Korea, UK, Switzerland, France, Italy, Netherlands and Germany. My work has been generously supported by Canada Arts Council, CALQ, Catapult Film Fund, Sodec, Telefilm Canada and Peter S. Reeds Foundation.
My debut feature documentary BEDROCK had its premiere at Berlinale Film Festival 2025.