Rafal Sokolowski is an award-winning film and theatre director. He was born and grew up in Poland and came to Canada as a refugee in the nineties. Since then, he lived and worked in Toronto and Montreal. He’s a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada, holds an MFA in Film from York University, and is an apprentice of the National Theatre Academy of Krakow in Directing. He is the Artistic Director of Blind Dog Films, which specializes in developing and producing narrative fiction.
Rafal’s films screened around the world and are supported by Telefilm Canada, the National Film Board of Canada, the Canada and Ontario Arts Councils, and the Canadian Film Center. His latest feature 22 Chaser premiered in Toronto where it won the Writer’s Guild of Canada for Best Feature Screenplay and was nominated for Best Editing. It was produced by Don Carmody (Chicago, Resident Evil), Daniel Bekerman (The Witch, Percy) and Aeschylus Poulos (Sleeping Giant) and starred Brian J. Smith (Sense8), Tiio Horn (On The Road), Raoul Trujillo (Sicario, Apocalipto), Aaron Ashmore (X-Men), and John Kapelos (The Breakfast Club). 22 was acclaimed as one of the best Canadian productions of the year and released theatrically by levelFILM and Gravitas Ventures. It is currently available on Amazon, iTunes, and Paramount+.
Rafal’s current projects include a narrative feature, The Farm – a contemporary tragedy inspired by real events featuring an eighty-year-old Martha who meets a man she believes murdered her daughter thirty years ago (Mood Reel). He is also developing an original television series, Blink – a heist-drama featuring a Columbian-Ukrainian woman who finds and spearheads an underground corporation specializing in theft and export of luxury cars.
Rafal is a passionate film teacher whose pedagogy comes directly from his professional work as a director, writer, and creative producer. His practice is rooted in the neo-neo realist narrative. Since 2014, he taught directing, film production, and writing at the O.U. School of Film; previously, he taught at York University, Ryerson, the National Theatre School of Canada, the College of Communication and Media in Warsaw, LIFT, and Soulpepper in Toronto.