Integration in Koszalin

On 13 September, the V European Festival "Integration You and Me" in Koszalin has been finished. In this year the Festival lasted four days and gained a lot of interest among the city inhabitants. The movies were shown in the cosy cinema "Alternatywa", that's located in the main building of Public Library of Koszalin. The main idea of this event is to integrate disabled people with the rest of the society through presenting movies, that show everyday life and problems of disabled people. But the Festival itself was not only the movies, but also sport events, exhibitions, discussions, meetings and theatrical performances. The festival was initiated in 2003, and since that time 162 movies and documentaries have been shown to the audience. The main organisers of this events are the Cultural-Social Society of Koszalin and the Public Library. This year the movies competed in 4 categories:

• feature movie;
• documentary;
• amateur movie made by the disabled people;
• short TV production about social campaign for disabled people;

The international jury consisted of media expert Philippe Lornac from France, Jerzy Kalina (sculptor, documentary author) of Poland, professor Bassam Aouil psychologist and psychoterapist, Rasim Iliasowicz Dargiach-zade, Russia, Marta Sikorska, Poland (World Champion 2002 in wheelchair dancing in pairs), local journalist and poet Agata Augusiak, doctor of psychiatry Radoslaw Balaj.

The winner of Grand Prix "Butterfly 2008" was an American movie "The Picture of Feelings" - director Slawomis Grunberg; additional two special prizes were given to Monika Pawelczuk - author of movie "The Models" and Siergiej Lukianczykow of Belarus (film "Borowiczek").