More than 2,500 films in 8, 16 and 35mm format and video footage on V-cord, U-matic, VCR, VHS, and Video-8 type cassettes are kept in the Institute of National Remembrance Archive.

The footage can be divided into three main categories:

1. Records gathered or produced by former Chief Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation (the successor of the former Main Commission for the Prosecution of Nazi Crimes);
2. Film documentation produced, gathered, or confiscated by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Citizens’ Militia, and various military services;
3. Donations made by private individuals within the Archive Full of Remembrance project.

The films archived by the former Chief Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation were obtained from German archives, and made by employees of the Chief Commission to document the cases and record the conferences organised by the Chief Commission, as well as those received from private donors. This documentation generally concerns the period of World War II, and is focused on the losses of Polish people living in the territories occupied by Germans.

Copies of German propaganda films such as Einnahme von Warschau 1939 (“Capture of Warsaw 1939”) or Sprung in den Feind (Parachute Drop on the Enemy) and fragments of films directed at the Polish population of the General Governorate constitute a significant part of the films from the Main Commission collection. Apart from historical documentation, the former Main Commission collection is comprised of records made in order to fulfil its tasks, among others, footage of the inspection of the Ogród Sejmowy (Sejm Garden) in Warsaw, the place where mass executions took place from November 1939 to October 1940.

The other group of film documentation in IPN collections are the records produced by the Ministry of Internal Affairs from 1965 to 1989. Those films were made primarily during the operational activities of the security apparatus units, and for its training needs. The majority of the operational footage did not survive due to regulations, as well as the deliberate destruction of operational materials by functionaries after the footage was used.

Bureau “B” was the MSW surveillance unit responsible for (apart from making operational footage) the documentation of trials, mainly of persons accused of espionage, e.g., Leszek Chróst, Bogdan Walewski, or fencer and Olympian champion, Jerzy Pawłowski, who was to be exchanged in 1985 for Polish communist spy Marian Zacharski on the Glieniecke Bridge on the Havel River in Berlin.

 The special film enterprise of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, named “Zespół Filmowy Biura ‘B’ MSW ‘Sektor’” [Sektor Film Crew of MSW Bureau “B”] also made training and propaganda films. The name of the enterprise (“Film Crew”) imitated the names of artistic film production crews active in Polish cinematography from 1955 to 1989. The target of training and propaganda films was mainly the ministry’s functionaries, but they were also meant for students of the Ministry’s schools for warrant officers in Legionowo and Szczytno. Propaganda films were also used by state TV and in press conferences by the government spokesman.

In conjunction with the making of operational and propaganda films, the filming of the manifestations and illegal protests was covered by the team of the forensic science unit of the criminal police headquarters, (Zakład Kryminalistyki Komendy Głównej Milicji Obywatelskiej, ZK KGMO). For example in 1967, forensic unit functionaries filmed, among others, the ecclesiastical festivities of the Millennium of the Baptism of Poland and of the Polish State, the student protests of 1968, and worker protests in 1970.

The main task of the ZK KGMO forensic unit was making footage of crime scenes, inspections, catastrophes, manifestations, and interrogations. These recordings were mostly made openly, initially on 8 and 35 mm film. In the 1980s, forensic footage was made with the use of video technology.

The collection of films accessioned by IPN from archives of the military security organs is of a somewhat different character. Training films dominate this collection. Their production was a task of the Czołówka Film Production Unit, an enterprise with its beginnings rooted in World War II. Czołówka was subordinated to the political branch of the Army, the Polish Army Political-Educational Main Directorate (Główny Zarząd Polityczno-Wychowawczy WP, GZPW WP). Training and propaganda films were also made by the film production crew of Directorate II of the General Staff (Zespół Realizatorów Filmowych Zarządu II Sztabu Generalnego), a foreign military intelligence unit. A special unit of the Military Internal Service (Wojskowa Służba Wewnętrzna, WSW – military criminal, public order, and security police) was responsible for the surveillance of soldiers in military units.

Just as in MSW, the WSW operational surveillance documentation was destroyed according to regulations – only the most important records were kept. Footage from only WSW film remains in the IPN Archive remains only one film footage made by WSW; it is WSW officers in a rented flat, installed a ‘through the wall’ video apparatus using a lens with the viewfinder embedded in the wall. In addition, in the so-called contact premises, the officers installed a wireless eavesdropping device and another viewfinder from which photographs were taken. Such measures enabled the recording of the moment, when Kaczmarzyk photographed secret materials in order to pass them on to British intelligence operatives.

The last category of films kept in the IPN Archive is made up of records donated by private donors and organisations, including Polish émigré institutions. The most valuable footage gained within the IPN project, the Archive Full of Remembrance, is a 1927 film documenting the transport to Poland of members of the Polish Army Veterans in America. A restored copy of the film shows amazing views of Polish pre-war cities: Gdynia, Gniezno, Poznań, Częstochowa, Katowice, Cracow, Zakopane, Marcinkowice, Nowy Sącz, Borysław, Lvov, Równe, Vilnius, Warsaw, Radzymin, and Łódź. The following clips show, among others: the port in Gdynia (where the arriving veterans were greeted by Gen. Mariusz Zaruski), a Polish cavalry show at the Grunwald Meadows in Poznań, oil wells in Borysław, a parade of the 13th Borderland Artillery Regiment in Równe, and activists of the Polish Army Veterans Association in America, including Dr. Teofil Starzyński and Agnieszka Wisła. The greatest value of the film is this image of the Second Polish Republic, lost in World War II.

Films are digitised in the IPN Archive digitisation laboratory in high resolution; the high quality files obtained are then indexed and stored in the File Repository and the multimedia module of the Digital Archive (Cyfrowe Archiwum, CA) archival information system; digital copies and their descriptions kept in the CA system are accessible for users, and are used for IPN topical websites and portals, films, etc.