Andrzej Krakowski

Early life

Krakowski was born in Warsaw in 1946. His father was at different times a high-ranking politician, head of national tourism, political prisoner and finally the production head of a government owned film studio ‘Kamera’. His mother, a radio journalist, had held several important international posts in her field. His maternal grandmother was a Polish revolutionary, killed in Auschwitz, whose name is still affixed to schools, factories and streets throughout Poland. Andrzej Krakowski thus grew up surrounded by the powerful men of politics on the one hand, and the creative, often politically daring, geniuses of Polish cinema on the other. World renowned artists, writers and philosophers such as Diego Rivera, Pablo Picasso, Ilia Ehrenburg, Nazim Hikmet, Max Frisch, Pablo Neruda, Yves Montand and Leszek Kolakowski were just a few of the many guests at the Krakowski home.

Education

Krakowski received his education at the Polish National Film School in Łódź. He studied under several prominent film directors and worked as an intern assistant to Andrzej Wajda during the making of Ashes. Attacked in the press after the March ’68 student demonstrations, Krakowski was unexpectedly offered a scholarship in Hollywood. Shortly after his arrival in the U.S., he was stripped of his Polish citizenship and forbidden to return to his homeland. In 2014 Krakowski received a Ph.D. in Film Arts from PWSFTviT in Łódź.

Career

In 1970, alongside David Lynch, Terrence Malick, Paul Schrader and Jeremy Kagan, he became a producing auditor, and then fellow, at the American Film Institute. During this period he worked on and line-produced several films for his AFI colleagues: Terrence Malick's Lanton Mills, Richard Patterson’s The Open Window, Jeremy Kagan’s Love Song by Charles Faberman and Oscar Williams’ The Final Comedown, launching careers of such actors as Ron Rifkin and Billy Dee Williams. Some of those films eventually attained a cult status and are being taught at American colleges as part of film curriculum.

Upon completing his education Krakowski joined YASNY Productions, Inc. as head of production. Among films he had green-lighted and supervised production of was the 1976 Oscar nominated feature documentary California Reich. After leaving YASNY, he continued producing films with his own Filmtel, Inc, including Portrait of a Hitman, starring Rod Steiger and Jack Palance, and White Dragon with Christopher Lloyd and Dee Wallace Stone. The latter was the first co-production between CBS network and a Polish government owned studio (“Perspektywa”). In less than three years Filmtel grew from a small production company into an international production and distribution conglomerate with offices in Los Angeles, New York, London and Sydney. Expanding into television Filmtel co-financed and distributed such successful TV shows as The Richard Simmons Show (for 4 years #1 daily-strip show) and Showtime’s XIV International Championship of Magic, hosted by the legendary Tony Randall.

After selling Filmtel Krakowski returned to his first love and today his screenwriting credits include: Triumph of the Spirit, starring Willem Dafoe and Edward James Olmos, Eminent Domain, with Donald Sutherland and Anne Archer, Tides of War, a vehicle for Ernest Borgnine and David Soul, Genghis Khan with Charlton Heston, the most expensive Italian production to date, Ogniem i Mieczem (With Fire and Sword), the highest-grossing film in Poland, and Managua, with Louis Gossett, Jr and Assumpta Serna in the lead. Facing the loss of his wife to breast cancer, Krakowski wrote, produced and directed a feature-length documentary The Politics of Cancer, which received theatrical distribution in the U.S., and were shown at the Cannes, Palm Springs and Santa Barbara Film Festivals.

During 1997-2002 Krakowski, aside from his creative work, became a co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of two successful television networks: the first dual platform (over-the-air and satellite)in Central Europe NaszaTV (now Scripps Networks) and the first US Internet TV network (ForeignTV.com) in New York.

In the first decade of 2000 Krakowski produced and directed a feature film based on a popular comic book Campfire Stories, which has been sold to over 30 countries, a hit stage musical in Tokyo Felix The Cat’s Musical Journey, a feature-length docudrama Farewell To My Country, chronicling the expulsion of the last Polish Jews from their homeland in 1968, and several commercials for Mercedes and BWIA airlines featuring Geoffrey Holder.

Krakowski’s latest feature film Looking for Palladin was shot in Antigua, Guatemala. The cast includes such veteran American actors as:Ben Gazzara, Talia Shire, David Moscow and Vincent Pastore, as well as Latin American stars: Anjelica Aragon, Pedro Armendariz Jr., Roberto Diaz Gomar and the Morales Brothers. The film won several awards at international film festivals such as Best Feature Film at the Queens International Film Festival; Best Feature Film and Best Ensemble Cast at the Orlando Hispanic Film Festival, and Best Production Company at the Napa/Sonoma International Film Festival." It was released theatrically in 2010-11.

Krakowski’s latest TV production, a 10-episode dramatic TV series titled We Are New York, was nominated for four and won two Emmy Awards in 2010.

Krakowski is the author of several books, among them: Pollywood and The World Through The Eye of a Screenwriter, as well as contributing co-author of the New York Times bestseller No Better Friend. Krakowski is one of the founders of the highly regarded (5 student Oscars within its first 8 years) SUNY-Purchase film program. He is currently a tenured professor and the former Chair of Media & Communication Arts Department at the City College of New York where he teaches film directing, screenwriting and production.

Filmography:

Smierc powstanca - 1966

Wolnosc wyboru - 1967

Przechodniu uwazaj - 1967

Lanton Mills - 1969

Frankenstein in a Fishbowl - 1970

The Open Window - 1970

The Wedding Was Beautiful, People Were Crying - 1972

The Final Comedown - 1972

Love Song by Charles Faberman - 1972

The California Reich - 1975

Portrait of a Hitman - 1977

Jimbuck - 1977

Crack Ups - 1984

Womenspeak - 1984

International Championship of Magic - 1985

Bialy Smok - 1986

What Has Four Wheels and Flies - 1986

Hollywood Theater of Magic - 1986

Legend of a White Horse - 1986

Triumph of the Spirit - 1989

Tides of War - 1990

Eminent Domain - 1990

Genghis Khan - 1991

Tribute to Dr. Sabin - 1993

The Politics of Cancer - 1995

King David - 1996 (Theater)

Managua - 1996

NaszaTV - Agnes Live! - 1997 (90 segments)

Ogniem i mieczem - 1999

ForeignTV.com - 1999 (150 segments)

Medium4.com - 2000 (200 segments)

Campfire Stories - 2001

Felix the Cat Musical Journey - 2001 (Theater)

Flo Fox's Dictology - 2002

Geoffrey Holder: The Unknown Side - 2002

Farewell to my Country - 2003

Stroke of Genius - 2006

Andrzej Wajda: Man of Marble - 2006

Andrzej Wajda: Man of Iron - 2006

Looking for Palladin - 2009

We Are New York - 2010 (10 segments)

Mayer & Co. - 2014 (Theater)