Alina Skrzeszewska

Alina Skrzeszewska was born in Wroclaw, Poland, in 1977. Her family emigrated to West Germany during the political upheavals following the breakup of the Solidarność movement, and she grew up in Munich. She studied Stage Design and Media Arts at the University of the Arts in Berlin before graduating with a Master of Fine Arts in Film & Video from the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts). In 2007-2008, she lived in one of those crumby hotels on Skid Row in Los Angeles. Since then, the neighbourhood has become Skrzeszewska’s spiritual home and she has shot several films there. Her first feature documentary, “Songs from the Nickel” (2010), was screened at numerous international festivals including Visions du Réel, DocLisboa and Gijon, winning various awards. “Game Girls” premiered in the Panorama Section of the Berlinale in 2018.