About me

My name is Jakub Witek, though everyone calls me Kuba. I was born in Cracow (19/11/1983), but Kielce is my hometown where I grew up and spent most of my childhood. I am a filmmaker, traveler, author of books and a speaker. I graduated from the University of Central Lancashire in Preston UK.

My direction of choice is North, you can say that I am an enthusiast of low temperatures. I visited Norway and Sweden. I’ve been to Iceland nine times. In 2016, I rode around the island alone on a bicycle, wandered the largest Vatnajökull glacier, visited ice caves and climbed Iceland’s highest peak – Hvannadalshnúkur.

In 2017, I circled Iceland again, this time in a roadster and with a camera, to shoot my first documentary – ISOLAND: Icelandic Stories of Polish Emigrants – which has won awards on film festivals and has been watched on YouTube almost 190,000 times!

In 2018 I made my second documentary – FAROE WAY: The art of survival in the Faroe Islands – a journey through a fascinating archipelago located in the middle of the Atlantic. During four visits at different times of the year, I had the opportunity to take a closer look at the lives of its inhabitants, learn about their culture, traditions, and see many amazing places. FAROE WAY has been shown many times on Faroese public television Kringvarp Føroy and has received a positive reception among the inhabitants of the archipelago.

In 2019 I took part in the AREX’2019 scientific expedition to Spitsbergen, organized by the Institute of Oceanology of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Sopot. A documentary about the melting Arctic entitled ICE MOTION is available to watch for free on YouTube. This is definitely not my last film project on global climate change.

I have written two books so far. RE: TUSZ – telling my story of growing up in post-communist Poland and RING ROAD: Cycling around the Iceland – the title completely explains its content.

I took part in discussion panels, festivals, conferences and gave lectures, including at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Iceland, the University of Gdańsk, the Institute of Oceanology of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Sopot, the University of Warsaw, the Center for Contemporary Art in Toruń, the Design Institute in Kielce and in many cultural institutions throughout Poland (and recently even in Moscow!).

My projects were promoted by National Geographic Polska, TVN24, Greenpeace, Trójka and Czwórka Polskie Radio, Noizz.pl, Polish Academy of Sciences, Gazeta Wyborcza, Question for breakfast, TVP Polonia, Polish Polar Consortium, Call of the North, Explore the World, BikeBoard, RowerTour , Wirtualna Polska, Onet, naTemat.pl, Bankier.pl and others.

I have carried out film and photographic projects in New York, Berlin, Paris, Reykjavik, Lviv or Oslo, as part of the Northcam project supported by Plac Wolności Foundation www.northcam.eu. In the past, I was a leader of many youth and cultural projects that were supported by EU, local and national authorities and NGO’s.

I try to spend as much time as possible in nature – I wander, run, swim, for years I am a supporter of a plant diet, a minimalist, I care about ecology and internal development.

I run a channel on YouTube and a page on Facebook where you can learn about my work.

See you on the way!

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