PETER SMOCZYNSKI
DOCUMENTARIAN
BIO BRIEF
Peter Smoczynski was born and raised in Montreal, Canada and attended Montreal’s Loyola University. It was the 1970's and Peter was in search of the Canadian experience; so he took jobs such as a CNR freight train brakeman (Jasper, Alberta); Alaska pipeline land surveyor in the Rocky Mountain foothills; a hired hand on Saskatchewan cattle ranch.
Peter returned to Montreal to produce his first documentary short titled “Being Old” for CBC’s Montreal’s Critical Path (exec. producer David Waters) and then followed up with a a series of CFL films modelled after NFL FILMS entitled "Moments In Motion".
Peter would continue as an independent documentary filmmaker and in time as a CBC TV researcher/writer and field producer in sports, entertainment and lifestyle (Edmonton, Winnipeg, Charlottetown, Regina and Vancouver. )
During the 1990’s Peter penned screenplays under representation by Los Angeles Preferred Artists Agency (Sylvia Hirsch/Lew Weitzman).
Peter's talents as screenplayer writer were commissioned by established Hollywood producers as William Wilson III (Santa Clause, George Of The Jungle) and Gerry Abrams (Black and Blue).
Peter is one of few Canadian writer/directors' whose drama short was released nationwide on 600 screens. "Gambit" was a cautionary tale about the dangers of being an international young drug mule (shot in Trinidad & Tobago/Ottawa) won acclaim as well as a Gold Sheaf Award at the 1994 Saskatchewan Yorkton Film Festival.
In 2010 Peter was afflicted by severe hearing loss and debilitating tinnitus, Peter withdrew from writing/directing and filmmaking in general. Almost ten years later Peter returned with a feature length documentary “E-Day Canada: When Voter Suppression Came Calling” which debuted at the 2020 Salt Spring Film Festival.
The filmmaker's photo and written work is often released under the pseudonym or nom de plume F.W. Samms.
Peter is presently in research and development towards a documentary trilogy on the dramatic rise of voter apathy through misinformation. A second project is based on the true events during WWI of Canadian women's sacrifice on the home front and a third project is a feature length documentary on the war in Ukraine.