Ryszard Kott, a computer professional from Poland, arrived in the Seattle area in 1989, after getting a job at Microsoft. He ventured into documentary movie production by the virtue of his starting the Historical Video and Oral History Project at the Polish Home in Seattle in the fall of 2016. He became a co-director of the movie as a substitute for Michal Pietrzyk who was out of town in the spring of 2018.
The project has gathered a wealth of material about local community with about three dozen audio and video interviews recorded in 2017 & 2018, and also collected historical photos and mementos. All these will be used in future to produce several patchwork stories – short videos…
Nils has been writing, producing and editing award-winning documentaries and television programs for nearly twenty years. Born in Calgary, Canada, he began his filmmaking career in the vibrant documentary market of Washington, DC. In 2009, after working on a film about Mount Rainier for the National Park Service, he was convinced to move back west and join the growing Seattle production scene.
Nils’ work includes more than 100 hours of factual programming for Discovery, National Geographic and History Channel, several Emmy Award-winning documentary short films for regional and national PBS, and the feature films 'Kenbe Fem: Struggle for Haiti' (2017) and 'Evergreen: Road to Legalization' (2014).
He lives in Seattle with his wife and two children.
Michal Pietrzyk was born in Poland, and emigrated with his family to the US at age two after his father was interned as a member of the anti-communist movement Solidarity. He has worked as a producer and editor on over 130 hours of unscripted network television for National Geographic, Discovery, Travel Channel, as well as documentary and branded content for clients such as Alaska Airlines.
Passing the Torch is not his first movie project about Polish community. He shot all the interviews to the 2010 documentary A Trip To Nowhere by Shannon Hart-Reed, depicting fate of the local Polish survivors of the WWII Soviet Siberian camps.
Michal currently serves as the Artistic Director of the Seattle Polish Festival.…
Bronka Sundstrom is a 93 years old mountaineer guide who lives in a house near the Mt. Rainier National Park entrance. Ms. Sundstrom and her husband Ake were avid hikers and she has become a Mt. Rainier guide. Known to everybody on the mountain, in 2002 she became the oldest woman to summit Mr. Rainier at the age of 77. She is also a Polish Jew and a Holocaust survivor who clings to the Polish language till this day as the core of her Polish identity.
Marta Prus is a Polish-born director, script writer, editor and a dancer, born in 1987 in Warsaw. As a child, she trained in gymnastics for 7 years. Marta graduated from the History Faculty at the University of Warsaw, and recently also from Direction Faculty at Lodz Film School and a Documentary Faculty at the Wajda School. She specializes in documentary and feature films. Two of her diploma movies “Vakha and Magomend”, and “Eighteenth Birthday”, won a number of national and international awards.
This year she is coming back with a new documentary “Over the limit”, dedicated to her childhood passion - gymnastics, that already gained a lot of attention nationally and internationally. She was selected for a list…
A Polish stage, television and film actor. Born April 05, 1980. He graduated from the Wrocław Faculty of Ludwik Solski Academy for Dramatic Arts in Cracow. He made his first professional stage appearance while still a student at the Teatr Polski in Wrocław in the play “Asylum” based on the writings of M. Gorki and directed by K. Lupa. His first big screen appearance was in “Day of the Wacko”, directed by Marek Koterski. His selected filmography includes: “Slaughterhouse Nr. 1”, directed by D. Matwiejczyk; “Immensity of Justice”, directed by W. Saniewski; “Who Never Lived”, directed by A. Seweryn; “Lejdis” and “Testosterone” directed by A Saramonowicz and T. Konecki; “The Lesser of Two Evils”, directed by J. Morgenstern; “Love and…
Stanislaw Cywka was born on January 28, 2000 in Wroclaw, Dolnoslaskie, Poland. He is an actor, known for The Erlprince (2016), Strawberry Days (2017) and My Name Is Sara (2018).
Piotr is one of the most prominent cinematographers in Poland. He is a multiple winner of main Polish film awards, including the Golden Eagle Award in the category Best Cinematography and Award of the Polish Society of Cinematographers (PSC). His works were honoured in many international festivals as well. Since 2007 he has been making feature films and commercials as a director of photography. He works with top advertisement agencies: Havas, Ogilvy & Mather, Publicis, DDB, Leo Burnett. Throughout his career up to date he has had the opportunity to cooperate with acclaimed Polish and foreign directors such as Wojciech Smarzowski, Łukasz Palkowski, Jan Komasa, Marta Meszaros and Nenad Mikovic.
Piotr has got cinematography in his blood. He is…
Born in 1983 in Lomza, polish actor, director and screenwriter. Piotr graduated from National Academy of Theatre Arts in Kraków and Directing Program at the Radio and Television Faculty at The Silesian University in Katowice.
Piotr started his career as an actor winning number of important awards. When his acting career was starting to take off, Domalewski decided to try directing. He grew popularity in the industry after shooting few short movies like: “Stranger”, 60 kilo niczego (2017) and Zle uczynki(2016) that won national prizes at the festivals.
Piotr debuted this year with “Silent Night” that won Golden Lions award
His debut was “Silent Night” a big winner of the Golden Lions award during the 42nd…
Bozena is a stage and television actress, born in 1974 in Paczkow, Poland. She graduated from National Academy of Theatre Arts in Kraków and started acting career in National Theatre of Warsaw. She is known for her roles in “The Witcher” (2007), “Immersity of Justice” (2006) and TV series such as “M jak Miłość” i “ Barwy Szczęścia”. In 2010 she began collaborating with private theatres (Teatr Kamienica and Och-Teatr) in Warsaw, where she had an opportunity to play on the stage next to the famous actress Krystyna Janda. This year she played one of the lead roles in “A Cat with a Dog” by Janusz Kondratiuk about family relationships. This movie was screened during the 43rd Polish Film Festival…
Anna Smolowik was born on July 8, 1985 in Radom, Mazowieckie, Poland. She is known for her work on Diagnoza (2017), Demon (2015) and Randka w ciemno (2010).
Anna Prus is an award winning Television/Film and Theater actress from Warsaw, Poland. She is widely known to audiences across Europe for her performance in Xawery Zulawski's SNOW WHITE AND RUSSIAN RED.The film was hailed by critics as a blustery romp through the disaffected world of post-Communist Polish youth. Anna was nominated for The Golden Duck award in the category of the Best Performance by a Lead Actress in motion picture.
Born in 1992 in Plock (Poland), Aleksander graduated from Music School Stage II in piano class. He is an alumni of the Movie Directing Faculty at the Warsaw Film School. His Final Diploma movie “Strong Coffee is Actually Not That Bad” (2014), won many national and international awards. Another short film “Me and my dad”, created in Munka studio, was also a huge success at festivals and was streamed in cinemas along with three other short movies under the name “The best polish 30’ short”. He debuted with a full-length movie called “Julius” which qualified him to enter the main movie contest of the 43rd Polish Film Festival in Gdynia.
Most of the experience Aleksander gained was on the…
Alicja is a very talented Polish actress and a singer, born in Tampico, Mexico in 1983. She studied at the Ballet Academy in Cracow, and at the National Academy of Music at the Vocal Department in Cracow. She also studied acting at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute in New York in 2003.
She started her successful singing career as a child. While still a teenager she had her debut on the full-screen in “Pan Tadeusz” directed by Andrzej Wajda. Later in her career she began crossing over into mainstream films outside Poland. She played the main roles in international movie productions including “Trade”, “Ondine”, “Polaris”. She won Best Actress award for the role in Trade and a Best…