After completing three language and social science studies in the US, France and Germany, I began my professional career at Germany’s public television station ZDF, where I was involved in setting up the European Culture Channel (now arte). The reorganisation of the public broadcasting system caused by Germany’s reunification brought me to Deutsche Welle in Cologne and then to its new, second location in Berlin. For 20 years I have been working there for television, mostly as a TV producer.
“The world needs good storytellers. Impressive stories incite us to contemplate, even embolden us, or our change our lives.
I am interested in the people behind their ideas, their challenges and their development. I write stories to touch other people and to awaken emotions that inspire to live life.”
Immersing myself in different cultures through numerous journeys enables me to hear unique personal stories. Some of them are like sparks of energy, so remarkable that they become seeds that grow into characters for my scripts where they create new stories. I going through the motions my characters experience when confronted with aggravated political and social situations. My goal is to realize their conflicts into a high degree of visuality and universality that will appeal emotionally to a broad audience.
My treatment THE RAFT is a fictional dramatic love story about a Cuban family fleeing to Miami. It won Germany’s most highly endowed award, the German Screenplay Prize of the Cologne Art Salon. The prize was a 12-month scholarship to the renowned Columbia University Film School in New York City.
“What a gift: Learning from the best in the field of filmmaking; an unforgettable experience.”
Since my return to Berlin, I have been working as a freelance screenwriter. Here I wrote the script THE EXILED, which is based on the award-winning treatment of THE RAFT.
I have been a jury member of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences since 2001.
“Every Spring I can’t wait to see the new submissions of news and documentaries. It is fascinating to see how creative the documentary genre has become. It’s a great honor to be a juror for the Emmys and to judge the best in American non-fiction storytelling.”
My latest book is a review of my father’s memories of his childhood and youth in the Polish city of Lwów.
My father’s life seemed to be well planned, so much so that it began two years before he was born in 1927 in the Polish town of Lwów. Despite all the mischief his brother had thought up, Stanislaw Szybalski had a happy, sheltered childhood. It all ended on the day he went out to buy supplies for the new school year that was to begin the next day. It was on September 1, 1939 – the day Hitler bombed Lwów. But Stanislaw is an amazingly sober boy with entrepreneurial talent. He tells us with disarming honesty how his world is developing until he has to leave home forever.
Deutsch (Sie) 
English