East of Paradise

East of Paradise

2005 · 108 min · ★ 6.3 · Documentary

Filmmaker Lech Kowalski explores his belief that struggle is "the epitome of living" in this documentary which compares the wildly different life experiences of himself and his mother. Kowalski's mother came of age in Poland during the early stages of World War II, and after failed attempts to outrun both Nazi and Russian forces she and her family were sent to a Soviet concentration camp, where inmates were tortured, mistreated, and starved to the point where some ate their own lice in a desperate struggle to survive. Kowalski also depicts his own self-inflicted season in hell during his years on the New York City punk rock scene as he wallowed in the sordid underbelly of drug addiction, pornography, prostitution, and streetwise decadence. On both stories, Kowalski finds a message of hope and strength in the midst of almost certain peril.

Directed by Lech Kowalski · Written by Lech Kowalski

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Maria Kowalski

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3h 40m together

East of Paradise

Blow It to Bits

Both from Lech Kowalski.

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Blow It to Bits

Blow It to Bits · 2019

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MovieDocumentary

A mix of Rock and Roll and Blues are the secret for successful rebellion. When I took my camera to the middle of France where the GM&S factory was threatened by a permanent shut down, I felt like something extraordinary was about to take place. And it did. The lyrics were written by workers who have had enough! The tune was composed by people not afraid to go against even the rules of revolt! The volume was loud enough to attract the media. Their working-class concert spread across France like wild fire. I sat out of sight, camera in hand, filming like catching fish in a barrel.

I Pay for Your Story

I Pay for Your Story · 2017

I Pay for Your Story

MovieDocumentary

Lech Kowalski returns to Utica (New York), where he grew up. He decides to document the struggles of his fellow citizens by offering to pay to hear their stories.

Rock Soup

Rock Soup · 1992

MovieDocumentary

It's the summer of 1989 in New York's Lower East Side. Homeless people have turned Tompkins Square Park into a tent city. On a nearby corner lot deeper in Alphabet City, where punk became famous and Allen Ginsburg wrote much of his poetry, a bunch of people try to make a soup kitchen work. They scrounge their food supplies from restaurants, fish markets and dumpsters. They build fires in the dirt and cook on old sewer grates. However the authorities threaten to close down the soup kitchen. The impeccably constructed black and white images give a view of the pre Disneyfication of New York City in this amazing work from filmmaker Lech Kowalski.

Story of a Junkie

Story of a Junkie · 1985

Story of a Junkie

Filmed in documentary-style, the film follows the character of Gringo, a young man looking for fortune in New York, only to fall into heroin addiction.

Born to Lose: The Last Rock and Roll Movie

Born to Lose: The Last Rock and Roll Movie · 2001

Born to Lose: The Last Rock and Roll Movie

MovieMusicDocumentary

Veteran documentary filmmaker and hipster Lech Kowalski creates this film about his friend and hard-partying rock god Johnny Thunders, member of legendary proto-punk band the New York Dolls. Through archive footage and interviews with such musicians as Dee Dee Ramone and Sylvain Sylvain, the film details his stint with the Dolls, the formation of his other band, the Heartbreakers; his rise to fame, particularly in Japan; his descent into heroin addiction, and the mysterious circumstances of his death.

Hey! Is Dee Dee Home?

Hey! Is Dee Dee Home? · 2003

Hey! Is Dee Dee Home?

MovieDocumentaryMusic

Punk rock devotees will welcome director Lech Kowalski's reflective video portrait of late bassist Dee Dee Ramone and his life as a music industry icon -- including his self-destructive bouts with heroin. The centerpiece of the hourlong documentary -- which is peppered with vintage performance clips -- is a 1991 interview with a clean Dee Dee, who talks at length about his storied career and penchant for living on the edge.

D.O.A.

MovieDocumentaryMusic

Documentary chronicling the rise and fall of the punk movement with rare interview footage of Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen. Also concert and news footage.

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MovieDocumentary

Since 24 February 2022, when the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, several million refugees have already been taken in by Poles. In the Lublin region, near the Bug River, which marks the border with Ukraine and Belarus, farmers, shopkeepers, a photographer, and a teacher tell how their daily lives have been transformed by the outbreak of this war.

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Maurice · 2011

MovieDocumentary

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Gas-Fieber · 2013

MovieDocumentary

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Sex Stars · 1976

MovieDocumentary

Sex star gives an explosive behind the scenes view of the people who make sexual fantasies come true on the silver screen. Sex Stars is the first feature documentary made by Lech Kowalski.

Holy Field Holy War

Holy Field Holy War · 2014

Holy Field Holy War

MovieDocumentary

Film art as a vehicle for denounce. This time, documentary film maker Kowalski chooses the seemingly quiet Polish landscape, a land chosen for gas drilling, making a careful examination through a cautious revision of the tracks left on the fields and the sincere confessions of discontentment of the farmers who witnessed the terrifying consequences of the intervention of great international corporations in the fields of Poland. The landscape in this resource-exploited land is infested by an invisible menace. With a special interest in the gaze of the oppressed, Kowalski delivers a somehow melancholic film, revealing a declaration of love to the land and nature before they go into oblivion.

This Is Paris Too

This Is Paris Too · 2020

This Is Paris Too

Lech Kowalski has gotten us used to movements for a long time now. Movements of the street, of punks, of fetishists, of his mother, of Polish farmers, of strikers: the list is long, it is the almost endless inventory of a demoted humanity. But is it a habit? Definitely not, more like the effect of a camera that remains untamed. And here we are, subjected to its kicks, its tricks, its rebellions, its rages, its heartfelt cries, we are blown away, and it exhilarates our souls. Once again, the idea is simple: to remake An American in Paris. One small point though, this time the American will be a Native American, sporting a baseball cap with the slogan “Native pride” on it; and Paris will be the rough areas along the roads of the capital, busy with homeless people and migrants from all around the world.

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