Jarosław "Jarek" Kupść (born December 26, 1966) is a Polish-American

film director A film director or filmmaker is a person who controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfillment of that Goal, vision. The director has a key role ...

screen writer A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter, scribe, or scenarist) is a person who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting. These can include short films, feature-length films, television programs, televisio ...

, and

actor An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...

Early life and education

He started shooting films at the age of sixteen in his native

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. In 1985, he left Poland for

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

, where he studied Byzantine icon painting and worked as a freelance cartoonist. He emigrated to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

in 1987 and became a naturalized citizen in 1992. He graduated from

San Francisco State University San Francisco State University (San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Francisco, California, United States. It was established in 1899 as the San Francisco State Normal School and is ...

in 1995 with a degree in writing/directing, while also pursuing a career as a graphic artist. In 1998, Kupść wrote and illustrated a film history book, ''The History of Cinema for Beginners''.

Film career

Kupść made his directorial debut with ''Recoil'' which was awarded Best Feature Film at Woodstock Film Festival in 2001. He followed with a road movie in 2006 titled ''Slumberland'' which won the Special Jury Prize at the Gdynia Film Festival His 2008 feature, ''The Reflecting Pool'', was one of the first narrative films dealing with the investigation of the September 11th attacks, After returning to Poland in 2010, he wrote and directed ''Kliny (Wedges)'' and began his association with the Warsaw Film School in Warsaw, Poland, where he teaches at the international department. His last film to date is the award-winning ''Quintuplets'', shot on a mobile phone. Jarek Kupść' film and art essays have been published by Little White Lies, Cineaste and other magazines.

Selected filmography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kupsc, Jarek 1966 births Living people Film directors from California Polish film directors American male screenwriters San Francisco State University alumni