About the film

In "Step Across the Border" two forms of artistic expression, improvised music and cinema direct, are interrelated. In both forms it is the moment that counts, the intuitive sense for what is happening in a space. Music and film come into existence out of an intense perception of the moment, not from the transformation of a preordained plan. In improvisation the plan is revealed only at the end. One finds it. The other connection concerns the work method: the film team as band. Much as musicians communicate via the music, our work, too, was realized within a very small and flexible team of equals. What mattered was exchange. And movement. Sometimes we started filming in the middle of the night, responding to a new idea that had arisen only minutes before. We had a fundamental feeling for what we wanted to do, for what kind of film this should be. And we followed that feeling. It was all very instinctive...

Wybrane festiwale i nagrody / Selected festivals and awards: 2000 – Jeden ze stu najlepszych filmów w historii kina według Cahiers du Cinema / One of the 100 most important movies in film-history by the critics of “Cahiers du cinema”, 1991 – MFF San Francisco: Nagroda Specjalna Jury / San Francisco IFF Special Jury Award, 1990 – FF Upsala: Najlepszy Film Dokumentalny / Uppsala FF: Best Documentary Film, 1990 – Europejska Nagroda Filmowa w kategorii Najlepszy Film Dokumentalny / Best Documentary European Film Awards, 1990 – MFF Figueara da Foz: Grand Prix / Figuera da Foz IFF: Grand Prix

See Peter Mettler’s “Live Cinema Show” with Fred Frith. Warsaw, Monday, May 13, Teatr Studio. Attend Fred Frith’s lecture about improvisation. Warsaw, Sunday, May 12, Festival Club Cafe Kulturalna.