I regard the International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography CAMERIMAGE mainly as a meeting place both of people who still study film and those, who have already won Golden Frogs and Oscars. Certainly, we recall the conversations conducted in the lobby as the nicest, when one succeeded to ask, for example, Sven Nykvist or Haskell Wexler a question - both of them were answering with equal willingness and warmth. Nevertheless, the heroes of notations prepared by me on the occasion of the 20th edition of the festival most often and most cordially reminisced about a couple of words exchanged with Robby Muller and Chris Doyle.

It is worth remembering that studying films is not limited to conversations, as films are like a tangle (sometimes most bizarre) of art and technology; speaking of technology - workshops, seminars and master classes are essential!

My interlocutors, who may be described as having been growing together with Camerimage - they once competed for Tadpoles, yet today they are front-runners to receive the Frogs (which I wish them with all my heart), often underline the fact that during the festival workshops they had a chance not only to see but also to test the equipment at that time unavailable in Poland, that not only did the Great Artists tell them their secrets but they also let them into their film world. My intention behind the present text is not to reminisce, I would like it to be treated as a set of advice which classes this year are particularly worth attending, as my “guide" is written mainly for the people who are not so much privy (or maybe not yet) to filmmaking. Still, I cannot resist to mention the recollection of one of my last year's heroes, today an already experienced cinematographer (his films were twice in the Polish Films Competition), who during a workshop observed with terror and jealousy how the host asked to install one reel after another and did not care how much of it had been already used, while the spectator was taught the pious respect for a negative and sighed with envy, admiration and disbelief. And one more memory, this time of an acknowledged Polish director, who as a student participated in workshops for directors conducted by Mike Leigh and who recalls this experience as warm-heartedly as drinking liqueur in Koci Ogon in Toruń with Emir Kusturica.

So, what should we start this year's studying from?

First of all, from ARRI workshop, during which Sean Bobbitt, the cinematographer behind Hunger, but mainly Shame by Steve McQueen, will show what being a cameraman consists in. And how to handle a camera safely. It is common knowledge that a cinematographer often cooperates with a camera operator, that is a cameraman; Sean Bobbitt, however, alike Dick Pope, is one of those cinematographers who operate a camera themselves in their films, because it is important for them to be as close to actors as possible - according to Dick Pope, it is only then when the essence can be caught. The most accurate definition of a cameraman was formulated by Dariusz Kuc, who said: “A director tells a film through his cameraman". Classes with Sean Bobbitt are number one among festival workshops, second on the list are consecutive ARRI workshops conducted by Tom Stern (a collaborator of, among others, Clint Eastwood) and Reed Morano - a cinematographer behind Oscar-nominated Frozen River - who will introduce all concerned into the issue of light in films - a factor once poetically described by Piotr Wojtowicz as something which “gives life". The third point are classes by Robert Shacklady (that is ARRI workshops again), who will talk about black and white photography. The fourth point is a workshop by Kodak about film reel entitled Organic. Magical. Romantic. Speaking of a negative, I need to mention number five on the festival list, that is seminars, under the auspices of Canon and Sony, devoted to digital cameras. And there is also the sixth point - a workshop of the Polish Associations of Editors devoted to editing in documentaries.

Those are the rudiments but if one delights in the abovementioned issues, they should not miss the meeting with Franz Krauss, the managing director at ARRI, about the cinema of the future; and with Michael Seresin (he cooperated, among others, with Alan Parker, let us just mention Bugsy Malone, Midnight Express, Harry Angel) - about 3D (the meeting will take place under the patronage of Fletcher Camera&Lenses company); and also with Joan Churchill, honoured this year for outstanding achievements in documentaries, and accompanying her Alan Baker - about empirical cinema; finally, a seminar devoted to forgotten, yet so charming and in its time revolutionary, Cinerama.

Master classes are extremely promising. The one on music videos will be conducted by Samuel Bayer, distinguished for outstanding achievements in this field (he shot music videos for Nirvana, Green Day and David Bowie), while the one on production design in film, or rather about the cooperation between a production designer and a cinematographer, will be held by Rick Carter, this year's another laureate, a two-time Oscar winner, an associate of Steven Spielberg, James Cameron and Robert Zemeckis. I strongly recommend these two meetings, as we often forget that a music video can be art too, and that production design is like creating a new world from the scratch. When I asked Jack Fisk, a production designer behind Terrence Malick and David Lynch's films, what the relation between a cinematographer and a production designer was like, he replied that it was like being twins. I wonder how Rick Carter perceives that issue. At last, the icing on the cake, a seminar of a charismatic cinematographer, a collaborator of Wong Kar Wai, namely Chris Doyle, dedicated to the relation between images and words.

A lot of space was reserved for the selection of lenses, and that will be a theme of seminars held under the auspices and with the support of such companies as Zeiss (the meeting will be carried by Den Lennie, who started his career as a ... lighting technician), Panavision, present at the festival from its first edition, Hawk and Angenieux.

Of course, a festival participant cannot live by workshops alone and the most important part are, above all, the screenings - those who are now starting their cinema adventure I strongly recommend the section “Remembering the Masters". Last year in Bydgoszcz we had a chance to see films with cinematography created by Zygmunt Samosiuk, who, like no one either before or after him, could visualize modernistic beauty; and productions co-created by Nestor Almendros, the master of natural light, who influenced Terrence Malick and inspired Emmanuel Lubezki, a cinematographer perceived as cult in some circles - if you do not believe me, please, watch Y Tu Mamá También.

This year we will recall: Marcel Carne's collaborator, Roger Hubert, a co-creator of Children of Paradise and The Devil's Envoys; and Mieczysław Jahoda, an associate of Konwicki, Lenartowicz, Ford, but above all Has. Even if only The Saragossa Manuscript was screened as a part of the retrospective, I would still consider this year's edition successful.