Hidy hoe. Back in the USofA. Had a fairly easy set of flights getting back to ol’ Detroit Metro.

Wow. Where to begin.

First, a hearty thanks to our production partners in Łódź– Topografie Association. Without them the film wouldn’t have been possible. Not only are they doing great work in the city with things like city games, virtual maps and cultural events, they also helped in the production of the film arranging all the interviews and getting us in contact with folks. All in all, they made our time in Łódź just incredible.

Check out their work via their website, though your gonna need some Polish language skills:

Next, here are some shots of time spent filming in Łódź:

Our crew in Łódź from left: Lukasz, our sound engineer, myself, and Steven Oliver, our Videographer/DP. Not pictured is our producer in Lodz, Michal Gruda, a part of Topografie.

Interviewing a young duo that started probably the coolest cafe in Łódź– “Owoce i Warzywa”, translated it means “Fruits and Vegetables.” The fella pictured in the background with that burly handlebar moustache is the lead singer of the band Psychocukier, a favorite in Łódź. Listen to my favorite of their songs here.

One of dozens of abandoned textiles factories in Łódź. The entire complex was enormous– a hulking beast showing remnants of Łódź’s industrial past. Looks kind of similar to the footprints left by the auto industry in Detroit, eh?

Not too far from the abandoned factory just mentioned is the factory pictured above– one of an estimated two or three remaining textile factories in Łódź.

Americans will be Americans. Sometimes we just need a giant meal after a day of hard work. This pile of meat consisted of every type they had in Łódź including some German-style schnitzel and some of that blood sausage (quite tasty!).

A group of four young guys out of college that decided they wanted to try and make a difference in Łódź by starting a business together. So, with help from the folks pictured above at Owoce i Warzywa, they are starting a cafe and live music space. The fact that they were getting help to start their business from people that, in most places, would be considered direct competition, reminded me a lot of the kind of community you have in Detroit.

Posing for a photo with none other than Miss Polonia (kind of like Miss America here). Not too shabby, eh?

Late night interviews (complete with potato chips and can of beer) with a journalist that followed us around for the last few days of filming in Łódź and wrote this article for Poland’s national paper about the film and work we were doing there. I think a lot of the content is kind of lost in Google translation, but nevertheless, we were very honored that Poland’s national paper was interested in the film and that we even got the chance to give them an interview.

Check out the website of our production partners in

With filming complete in Poland, now we’re bringing the production to Detroit. Over the next month’ish, we will be conducting interviews here and getting the content arranged. When the interviews are complete and we have all the footage, we’ll go in to editing which will probably take a good chunk of time, but we’re hoping to have a rough cut of sorts by late September/early October so we are in prime form to start submitting it for film festivals.

The train’s moving.

(This post also appeared on the DETROIT LIVES! blog available for viewing <a href=”http://detroitlives.org/2011/06/21/back-in-the-states-poland-re-cap-with-photos-begin-the-begin/” target=”_blank”>here</a>)