The book by Monika Talarczyk is devoted to the life and work of Wanda Jakubowska (1907-1998), author of The Last Stage (1948), an icon of women's cinema, said to be the Mother of All Holocaust Films. The author discovers previously unknown facts in Jakubowska's biography from the period of her childhood in Russia and her youth, associated with Polish socialists. She also provides a closer look at the director's activity in post-war production culture as a chairwoman of the film units and a teacher at the GBPodY Film School. Talarczyk presents Jakubowska's works in the context of Holocaust studies as well as women's cinema. The publication includes Jakubowska's descriptive filmography. The director's achievements are illustrated by previously unpublished photos from film sets as well as film stills from Jakubowska's private archive.

The history of film students from the Global South who studied in Poland during the Cold War. As Poland's second-largest city, Lodz was a hub for international students who studied in Poland from the mid-1960s to 1989. The Lodz Film School, a member of CILECT since 1955, was a favored destination, with students from Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East accounting for one-third of its international student body. Despite the school's international reputation, the experience of its filmmakers from the Global South is little known beyond Poland. Hope Is of a Different Color addresses the history of student exchanges between the Global South and the Polish People's Republic during the Cold War. It sheds light on the experiences and careers of a generation of young filmmakers at Lodz, many of whom went on to achieve success as artists in their home countries, and provides insight into emerging areas of research and race relations in Central and Eastern Europe. The essays reflect on these issues from multiple perspectives, considering sociology, political science, art, and film history. The book also features previously unpublished photographs and film stills from private archives along with visual and written material collected at the Lodz Film School.