Beata Poźniak: Difference between revisions
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==References== |
==References== |
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== Further reading == |
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Agnieszka Niezgoda ( conversations ), Jacek Laskus ( photographs ). |
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''Hollywood PL. Beyond The Dream: Personal Roads to The Silver Screen.'' ( Warsaw, Poland, 2013 ). |
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Wydawnictwo Hollywood PL. |
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ISBN 978-83-932192-1-6 |
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link: http://www.hollywood-pl.com/excerpts-from-the-conversations/ |
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the book's trailer: http://www.hollywood-pl.com/trailer/ |
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==External links== |
==External links== |
Revision as of 22:20, 30 July 2014
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Beata Poźniak | |
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![]() Beata Poźniak | |
Born | |
Education | Master's Degree (High Honors) |
Alma mater | National Film School in Łódź PWSFTViT - Państwowa Wyższa Szkoła Filmowa, Telewizyjna i Teatralna |
Occupation(s) | Actress, director, producer, writer, artist, activist |
Beata Poźniak (born April 30, 1960) is a Polish-American actress, film director, painter, fashion model and activist. She also goes by the name Beata Pozniak Daniels.
Early life
Poźniak was born in Gdańsk, Poland, daughter of Krystyna Poźniak, a dentist and Roger Zbigniew Taylor, orthopedic surgeon. Her mother was born in Wilno, Poland (now Lithuania). Her early childhood found Pozniak in England where she went to school. She passed her entrance exam to the National Film School in Łódź PWSFTViT with the highest score in the country, and received a Masters Degree with High Honors at age 22. Her very first film role was as an extra in the Academy Award winning film The Tin Drum which happened to be filming near her home. She later made many film appearances and worked as a fashion model and was the calendar girl for Poland's national soccer team.
Career
Film and television work
Pozniak was discovered by the U.S. audiences when Oliver Stone cast her in JFK as Marina Oswald. This memorable role in an Academy Award-nominated film was her U.S. feature debut and it led to her appearances in over 30 film and TV projects worldwide. She soon became known for playing intense, edgy characters like the first female President of the World, Earth Alliance President Susanna Luchenko in “Babylon 5”, a fiery young revolutionary in George Lucas’ “The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles”, as well as a sharp scientist Ludmilla in “Dark Skies” and as Eva in “Pensacola”. Other “gutsy” roles have included Paramount’s "JAG" where she appeared as an exotic Israeli spy, a double agent working for the Mossad and CIA. In the television series "Melrose Place" she created a ground-breaking character, Dr. Katya Fielding, a "straight" woman and mother who decides to marry a gay man - the role that is still very much talked about, making Pozniak one of the show's most popular former cast members. Her other diverse roles include Masha in "Mad About You", Raisa on “The Drew Carey Show” and Tambor, the Japanese nanny in Oliver Stone's "Wild Palms" miniseries. In the CBS movie of the week "A Mother's Gift" she was seen as a character that aged thirty years, whereas in a World War II drama entitled “Miriam” she played a Catholic woman who risks her life to save a Jewish girl from the Nazis. Embracing new technologies, she also starred in the groundbreaking video game, interactive movie (video game) Psychic Detective (Colossal Pictures/Electronic Arts).
Theatre and Performance Art
Seeking a new voice for herself in a uniquely contemporary style that declares “anything is possible,” she founded Theater Discordia. Creating performance-art pieces that have been part of the L.A. Theatre Festival, and the L.A. Poetry Festival, she directed and wrote “Poeticus Umbilicus", “Poetry Discordia”, “Return of Umbilicus", “We & They” and “Changing Flags." [1] Her Theater Discordia evolved, with the participation of Peter Sellars, into a celebrated venue for experimental theater works.
Art
Pozniak is also an accomplished painter, and continues to work in film, often appearing in experimental and independent productions, several of which she has also directed. In her directorial debut which was a short film “Mnemosyne” she used several art pieces made by her. Praised by F.X. Feeney LA Weekly: “the multitalented Pozniak rapidly intercuts news footage of violence with live models and her own sensual sculptures to express a fierce moral sense. ”Through her art Pozniak often explores what it is to be a woman in today’s world with recurring themes of women's rights, social justice and women's history. Her artworks combine the choreographic traditions of theater with symbolic and surreal imagery of painting and sculpture. In her early mask series, Pozniak connects an ancient and mythological theatrical device with the surrealism of Man Ray to produce a stunning range of fantastical masks made from feathers and other found objects. Her more recent paintings and sculptures explore the collision of ancient myths and the modern world. By combining imagery reminiscent of surrealist dreamscapes with found objects these works challenge our notions of continuity between past and present. Pozniak says: “Surrealism is a lens through which I view many of the events and circumstances occurring in the world today. Whether it is the horrors of war or inspirational insights found in ancient mythology, I am constantly exploring fantastical juxtapositions that express something about the experience of being a woman. That is why my paintings and sculptures are often surreal and full of symbolism. Feministic, poetical, and political.” [2]
Activism
Beginning in the late 1980s, soon after her arrival in America, Pozniak began a campaign to get the US Government to recognize International Women's Day. She was very successful, and she accomplished the introduction of the first bill in the history of the U.S. Congress for national recognition of the holiday (H.J. Res. 316) designating March 8 as International Women’s Day occurred on March 8, 1994.[3] She made the headlines of Los Angeles Times The Los Angeles Times who hailed her as "Taking the Banner For Women Everywhere". Furthermore, Pozniak established a non-profit educational organization Women’s Day USA,[4] which aims to raise a public awareness of women’s inspirational achievements all over the world. She is currently working on other projects through her non-profit organization that help bring awareness to third world issues.
Pozniak became a United States citizen in 1991, and lives in Beverly Hills, California in a home once owned by Errol Flynn. She is married to architect Jeffrey Daniels and they have one child.
Filmography
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
2013 | "People on the Bridge" | Poet Wislawa Szymborska | Also director |
2010 | "The Officer's Wife" | Officer's Wife - Cecylia | Prod. Jan A. P. Kaczmarek |
2010 | "Ojciec Mateusz" | Ewa Pol - Hollywood Star | TV Series based on Italian Don Matteo |
2009 | "On Profiles in Courage" | Host | Also director - Documentary |
2007 | "Zlotopolscy" | Helena | TV series (46 episodes) |
2006 | "Miriam" | Margitas | Dir. Matt Cimber |
2006 | "Cyxork 7" | Jacey Anderson | Dir. John Huff |
2004 | "Freedom from Despair" | Narrator | Award winning documentary |
2002 | "The Drew Carey Show" | Raisa | TV series |
2002 | "Philly" | TV series | |
2002 | "Mnemosyne" | Mnemosyne | Also director |
2001 | "Family Law (TV series)" | Mary Kobish | TV series Dir. Oz Scott |
2001 | "Mixed Signals" | Erica Chamberlain | |
1999 | "Enemy Action" | Fatima | Prod. Roger Corman |
1999 | "Klasa na obcasach" | Betty | TV series |
1998 | "Women's Day: The Making of a Bill" | Host | Also director |
1997 | "Pensacola: Wings of Gold" | Eva Terenco | TV series Dir. James A. Contner |
1997 | "Babylon 5" | President Susanna Luchenko | Dir. Tony Dow trading cards are made based on her character |
1997 | "Dark Skies" | Ludmila | TV series |
1997 | "JAG" | Malka Dayan | TV series Dir. Ray Austin |
1995 | "War & Love" aka "Heaven's Tears" | Ingrid Steiner | |
1995 | "A Mother's Gift" | Kristine Reinmuller | MOW based on "A Lantern in Your Hand" |
1994 | "Psychic Detective" | Laina Pozok | video game - screened at Sundance Film Festival |
1993 | "Melrose Place" | Dr. Katya Petrova Fielding | TV series prod. Aaron Spelling |
1993 | "Wild Palms" | Tambor | Ex. Prod. Oliver Stone, Bruce Wagner |
1993 | "The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles" | Irene | Prod. George Lucas |
1993 | "Mad About You" | Masha | TV series |
1993 | "Ramona" | Ms. White | |
1992 | "At Night the Sun Shines" | Anabelle | |
1991 | Ferdydurke | Flora Gente | Dir. Jerzy Skolimowski |
1991 | JFK | Marina Oswald | Dir. Oliver Stone |
1989 | "Stan wewnetrzny" | Kobieta w czerni | |
1989 | "White in Bad Light" | Narrator | |
1987 | "Vie en images" | Alice Eber | |
1986 | "A Chronicle of Amorous Accidents" | Zosia | Dir. Andrzej Wajda |
1985 | "Hamlet in the Middle of Nowhere" | Ophelia | based on a play by Ivo Brešan |
1985 | "Rozrywka po staropolsku" | MOW | |
1984 | "I Died to Live" | ||
1984 | "Deszcz" | TV Musical | |
1983 | "Krolowa Sniegu" | Princess | TV Musical |
1983 | "Lucky Edge" aka "Szczesliwy Brzeg" | Pola | MOW |
1982 | "Klamczucha" | Uczennica | |
1981 | "Man of Iron" | Dir. Andrzej Wajda | |
1981 | "Zycie Kamila Kuranta" | Todzia | TV series |
1979 | "The Tin Drum" | Dir. Volker Schlöndorff |
Audiobooks
- 2014: "Empress of the Night: A Novel of Catherine the Great", published by Random House
- 2012: "The Winter Palace: A Novel of Catherine the Great", published by Random House
http://www.booksontape.com/narrator/?id=156649
References
Further reading
Agnieszka Niezgoda ( conversations ), Jacek Laskus ( photographs ). Hollywood PL. Beyond The Dream: Personal Roads to The Silver Screen. ( Warsaw, Poland, 2013 ). Wydawnictwo Hollywood PL. ISBN 978-83-932192-1-6 link: http://www.hollywood-pl.com/excerpts-from-the-conversations/ the book's trailer: http://www.hollywood-pl.com/trailer/
External links
- Beata Pozniak at IMDb
- Official website
- [Beata Pozniak's] [official Zamadunga Miedfara Page] Miedfara.com/pages/Beata-Pozniak/165141746848437?v=wall
- [Beata Pozniak], Activist, [1]
- Polish website
- [2] Taking the Banner for Women Everywhere, LA Times