Kazimierz Karabasz
Polish film director (1930–2018)
Kazimierz Karabasz (Polish pronunciation: [kaˈʑimjɛʑ kaˈrabaʂ]; May 6, 1930, in Bydgoszcz, Poland – August 11, 2018) was a Polish documentary filmmaker. A graduate of the Łódź Film School in 1956, he also taught the documentary programme there for many years.
Career
Although his work is now rarely seen, his most famous film, a ten-minute documentary short entitled Muzykanci / The Musicians, is an extra on the Criterion Collection edition of Krzysztof Kieślowski's film The Double Life of Véronique. Kieślowski, whom Karabasz mentored, chose this as one of his personal all-time top ten films in a 1992 poll conducted by the film magazine Sight & Sound.
Karabasz is known in Poland for influencing generations of documentary filmmakers to come with his approach to filmmaking called "school of Karabasz" (Polish: szkoła Karabasza). The style focuses of regular people's lives and requires a perspective of an observer with zero impact on the observed object. Muzykanci is considered a textbook example of "Karabasz school". The method was especially popular in the sixties and associated with the œuvre of Władysław Ślesicki, Andrzej Trzos-Rastawiecki, Krystyna Gryczełowska and Danuta Halladin among others.
Filmography
Jak co dzień / As Every Day (1955)
Gdzie diabeł mówi dobranoc / Where the Devil Says Goodnight (1957)
Ludzie z pustego obszaru / People From an Empty Zone (1957)
Z Powiśla / From Powiśle (1958)
Dzień bez słonca / A Day Without the Sun (1959)
Trochę inny świat / A Slightly Different World (1959)
Ludzie w drodze / On the Road (1960)
Muzykanci / The Musicians (1960; included in the Polish Film Heritage List)
Węzeł / The Junction (1961)
Pierwszy krok / The First Step (1962)
Tu gdzie żyjemy / Here, Where We Live (1962)
Jubileusz / The Anniversary (1962)
Ptaki / Birds (1963)
W klubie / In the Club (1963)
Urodzeni w roku 1944 / Born in 1944 (1964)
Na progu / At the threshold (1965)
Rok Franka W. / The Year of Frank W (1967)
Sobota / Saturday (1969)
Przypis / Footnote (1970)
Zgodnie z rozkazem / Following Orders (1970)
Sierpień – zapis kronikalny / August – A Chronicle (1971)
Przed... / Before...
“Kazimierz Karabasz” enters the record as polish film director (1930–2018). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Kazimierz, Karabasz and Polish can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Kazimierz Karabasz” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Kazimierz, Karabasz and Polish provides the most credible route into that argument.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q326364. VIAF identifies the subject as 101921917. The Library of Congress control number is n82089079. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1930, 2018, 1956 and 1992.
Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Kazimierz Karabasz”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Kazimierz Karabasz primary sources, Kazimierz Karabasz archive and Kazimierz research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Kazimierz Karabasz”?
- Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
- Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Kazimierz Karabasz” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.