Lukasz Machowski

Lukasz Machowski is a Polish director, screenwriter, and cinematographer. As a child, Lukasz wrote stories about cowboys and Indians, which he later read on Polish Radio Rzeszow. As a teenager, he spent evenings in the studio of his father, painter Tadeusz Machowski, who educated him about art and cinema. Because of his love of writing and film, Lukasz decided to study film studies at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, eventually earning a master's degree and gaining knowledge of the history and aesthetics of European and world cinema. It was in New York that he rediscovered himself and took his first steps as a filmmaker - writing his first feature script and shooting the monochromatic city symphony 'Sketches from the Underground' (2015). The documentary, which takes viewers on a journey through the underbelly of New York City, won him numerous film awards, including Best Art/Experimental Film at the 20th Portobello Film Festival in London and had its US premiere at the Brooklyn Museum in New York. Lukasz relocated to London, where he was commissioned by Hong Kong production company Insight Studios to shoot two medium-length television documentaries: 'The Road to Peking', a portrait of Sir Robert Heart, who modernized 19th-century China, and 'Finland Education', in which Hong Kong TV star Zhou Yijun travels to Finland to investigate the unconventional early education system there. These two projects led Lukasz to travel to China, where he worked as a screenwriter and a director on a feature-length documentary 'In Search of the Dragon', about circus artists preparing a large-scale show. In 2022, Lukasz co-wrote and co-directed two feature films with his soulmate and work partner, Katarzyna Machalek. 'Day and Night' (2022) is a story about the timeless power of female community, delving into magical folk rituals and showing how in remote regions, dreams and reality often intermingle. The film was showcased in the Polish Days section at the New Horizons International Film Festival in Wroclaw and had its World Premiere in the Feature Film Competition of the Riga International Film Festival. 'Boys' (2022), a lyrical portrayal of teenagers in prison, is a universal tale of stalled youth, growing up and finding one's place in the world. Lukasz served as cinematographer for both films, portraying the community of elderly women and underprivileged teenagers in prison with an equally sensitive camera eye.