The American Corner Receives a Collection of American Films

On April 17, the American Corner received a collection of 640 American films on DVD through a donation by Mr. Joe Seida. Joe Seida was born in 1935 in New Jersey with cerebral palsy, a condition which left him handicapped for the rest of his life. Despite his physical limitations, he graduated magna cum laude from St. Francis University in Pennsylvania with a bachelor's degree in English. After finishing his studies, Joe started working for Gallup and Robinson, the world-renowned research company. He worked as a survey analyst for Gallup and Robinson for almost thirty-five years. From a young age, Joe had a great fondness for film and Broadway productions. Over the years, he developed an enormous store of knowledge and trivia about American movies and Broadway shows. After retiring from work in the early 1990s, Joe's passion became building and cataloguing a collection of DVDs of his favorite films. In 2003, he moved permanently to Kraków, Poland, where he spent the last years of his retirement listening to music and watching his beloved films. He passed away after a brief illness in February 2007 at the age of 72. On April 17 Piotr Piwowarczyk, one of Joe Seida's closest friends, and founder of the "Mam Marzenie" foundation in Poland, visited the American Corner to bequeath Joe's collection of films to the Corner. The collection, which contains mostly American "classic" movies from the 40s, 50s and 60s, commemorates the life of an extraordinary human being, Joe Sedia, and is now available to the public.