Page "Cinema of Poland" Paragraph 5

The first cinema in Poland ( then occupied by the Russian Empire ) was founded in Łódź in 1899, several years after the invention of the Cinematograph.

Initially dubbed Living Pictures Theatre, it gained much popularity and by the end of the next decade there were cinemas in almost every major town of Poland.

Arguably the first Polish filmmaker was Kazimierz Prószyński, who filmed various short documentaries in Warsaw.

His pleograph film camera has been patented already before the Lumière brothers ' invention and he is credited as the author of the earliest surviving Polish documentary titled Ślizgawka w Łazienkach ( Skating-rink in the Royal Baths ), as well as the first short narrative films Powrót birbanta ( Rake's return home ) and Przygoda dorożkarza ( Cabman's Adventure ), both created in 1902.

Another pioneer of cinema was Bolesław Matuszewski, who became one of the first filmmakers working for the Lumière company-and the official " cinematographer " of the Russian tsars in 1897.