Halina Winiarska-Kiszkis, born in 1933, has been a theatre actress since 1953. During her long career she cooperated with the best Polish Theatres, e.g. in Nowa Huta, Zielona Gora, Rzeszow. Between 1966-2003 she worked in Wybrzeze Theatre in Gdansk. When the strikes broke in the Gdansk Shipyard in August 1980 she openly endorsed the protesters with her colleague actors. Soon they formed their own "Solidarity" union in the theatre. With other cultural workers she co-organised the occupation of the Provincial Office of Gdansk.
After the introduction of martial law on 13 December 1981 she was immediately arrested and kept in the internment camp in Strzebielinek, Bydgoszcz-Fordona and Goldap. After being released she still continued her oppositional activity, mainly in the field of culture, e.g. she co-organised the Weeks of Christian Culture in Gdansk's churches. In free Poland she was rewarded with many several distinctions (like "Gloria Artis" Silver Medal).
In the Notation Halina Winiarska-Kiszkis speaks about the time she spent in the internment camp. She shares her emotions and experiences of being humiliated. However, she also describes the prisoners' strategies of resistance, like mocking the guards and disobeying their orders.
Film Notation with Halina Winiarska-Kiszkis is a part of the first edition of a project "Solidarity. What is left" conducted by the European Solidarity Centre in Gdansk (with technical support of Video Studio Gdansk and financial donation from the National Centre for Culture, through the "Patriotism of Tomorrow" programme). In the same edition Halina's husband, Jerzy Kiszkis - also an actor, cultural activist, and dissident - was interviewed. Since 2008 there has been VII editions of the "Solidarity. What is left" initiative.
