Wolność nogi ( Freedom of the Leg) - Piotr Dumała (1988)

1988 - "Wolność nogi / Freedom of the Leg". A dream-like story of a sleeping man whose body parts live their own lives at night to return to him in the morning - all except one leg which has chosen freedom. Its owner as well as a crowd of homeless men chase the leg, but it grows feathers and flies away as a bird. A grotesque tale with a poetic ending and with interesting music by Janusz Hajdun.

Piotr Dumala was born in Poland and studied sculpture and animation at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. His award-winning animated ?lms include Lagodna (Gentle Spirit, 1985), Nerwowe zycie kosmosu (Nervous Life of the Universe, 1986), Sciany (Walls, 1987), Wolnosc nogi (Freedom of the Leg, 1988), and Franz Kafka (1990).

Dumala's films have won multiple awards. Lagodna was winner of the Golden Ducat at the International Film Festival in Mannheim, Germany, in 1985, and received an award for the Best Animated Film at the International Short Film Festival in Toures, France. Dumala received a Mister Linea Award at the Treviso International Animation Festival for his 24 episodes of the series Nerwowe zycie, and, in 1998, Sciany received the Grand Prix at the International Short Film Festival in Krakow, Poland, and Special Jury Award at the International Animated Film Festival in Annecy, France. In 1992, Franz Kafka received the Grand Prix at the 10th International Animation Film Festival in Zagreb, Best Animated Film at the International Film Festival in Madrid, Grand Prix at the International Animated Film Festival in Espinho, and Best Cartoon Animation at the Ottawa International Animation Festival.

Dumala's most recent piece is an adaptation of Dostoyevski's Crime and Punishment (Zbrodnia i kara) which premiered at the Ottawa International Animation Festival in September 2000 and received the prize for Best Design at that festival. In 2001, Crime and Punishment was awarded the Public Prize at the Summer Film Festival in Kazimierz, Poland, and at the International Animation Film Festival in Espinho. In 2003 Dumala was awarded a Luna de Valencia at the Valencia Film Festival for his lifetime achievement in animation. He received the Albin Brunovski Prize in Uherske Hradiste for his artistic creativity in the art of animation, and a Grande FeFe Award at the FeFe Festival in Warsaw for his artistic independence in the field of animation. Dumala has created four MTV idents: Charlatan won the Broadcast Design Gold Award in Orlando, Florida, in 1994, and was a finalist in the New York festivals. Kafka Meets Dostoyevski received an International Broadcast Design Gold Award in 1996.

In addition, Dumala has made commercials and TV trailers; a short public service announcement for Amnesty International; and a ten-second sequence created for the Absolut Vodka website showcasing independent animation. He teaches animation at the Film, Television and Drama School in Lodz, Poland; is a guest professor at the Animation House at Konstfack in Eksjö, Sweden; and a visiting lecturer at Harvard University. He is involved in writing and journalistic activities, and published Razor Game (Male, 2000), a collection of short stories. He also creates graphics, paintings, illustrations and poster designs. He is currently working on his new film The Forest.


Awards: 1989 - Grand Prix at 1st Animated Film Biennial FAZY'89 in Bielsko-Biała; Brązowy Lajkonik at 19th National Short Film Festival in Cracow; Professional Prize at the Kiev KROK Festival; 1990 - 1st Prize for a 5 to12 Minute Film at the Zagreb World Festival of Animated Films.