I was born in Poland, studied politics, communication & economics in Belgium, Germany and Holland, traveled to over forty countries, rowed in the Belgian national team, played in a Russian theatre company, worked as a guide in the Arctic, a travel journalist in South America & an integration teacher and mental health worker in Brussels.
Along the way, I listened to outstanding storytellers, learned eight languages, endured and recovered from acute pain, read some good poetry and figured out my life was brimming with stories worth sharing.
Eventually, grabbing a camera felt natural. It’s also the only idea I could come up with to take full advantage of what I’m best at: connecting with people and using languages.
Enjoy your visit! Seba
Below you will find my videos with short texts adding context to the stories. I made them as a one-man crew taking care of filming, sound recording, lighting and editing.
What made it possible to film these stories is not a film school diploma but curiosity, a trial-and-error approach, a few books a a series of YouTube tutorials.
A group of young lads exiting a Molenbeek mosque set eyes on my camera as I was preparing to shoot an interview for a friend’s NGO. They ran up to me asking with enthusiasm if “I could do a video job for them in Asia starting next week”.
The spontaneity of the question seemed crazy. What followed was even more so. Eight days later I landed in Thailand in company of twenty Brussels Muay Thai fighters. I spent three weeks filming their trainings, fighting galas and other – less painful – endeavours around the country.
The unlikely encounter resulted in these four videos commissioned by OmarGym and their association Emancipower.
From the start I was overwhelmed by the smell of the floors soaked with sweat and the sounds of enraged shouts resonating in the gyms.
The screams accompanying the punching and the kicking turned out to be helpful in pacing my filming and editing though. Eventually, I also got used to the smell.
What struck me most in the first days was the fighters’ determination to give it all during every single training, the kindness of our hosts, the madness of the betting crowds during the fights in the Max Muay Thai Stadion in Pattaya and, obviously, the sun-lit entertainment.
We arrived on the island of Koh-Samui just before the Thai New Year. According to traditions, locals and visitors greeted the new year with water, the symbol of purity.
Water was to become the symbol of our whole trip. It offered relief during exhausting trainings and fights and represented the best entertainment in hilltop pools and on tropical beaches.
Entertainment never happened without the anticipation of upcoming fights though. Tension was building up incessantly, climaxing in electrifying warmups before the kick-off of fighting events.
Our stay in Thailand culminated in a boxing gala in Koh-Samui. Eight Brussels fighters clashed with their Thai counterparts.
Most of Belgian boxers won their fights and went on a well-earned trip to a postcard island.
I also came up with a little bonus event for the end of the trip. A friend of mine was a vice-consul in the Belgian embassy in Bangkok at the time of our visit. That’s how we could arrange for an honorary reception in the embassy and a meeting with the consul who turned out to be a Muay Thai enthusiast.
Masir Avenir is an integration project for young fellows from around the world who just arrived in Brussels and Flanders.
The participants get a taste of Belgium’s culture, history and society while learning Dutch… and having lots of fun.
This video was commissioned by the Flemish government’s Agency for integration (Agentschap Integratie & Inburgering).
Masir means “future” in Persian.
In the summer of 2016 I moved from Brussels to Rio de Janeiro.
After working for almost a year in Rio as a tourist guide, a photographer and a French and Dutch language teacher, I pitched a travel journalism project to Metro, Belgium’s most read newspaper.
Camila – my partner – and I would cross South America, make videos and write articles based on ideas and questions we’d be getting from Metro readers, becoming their eyes and ears in South America.
Metro liked the idea, they found a sponsor – Joker, Belgium’s leading alternative travel agency – and in May 2017 we hit the road.
The project Metro Travel Stories involved a 3-month overland journey from Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) to Lima (Peru) across Bolivia, Argentina and Chile.
We produced a dozen videos and twenty articles which were published weekly in print and online in Dutch & French.
We met beautiful people, hitchhiked through awe-inspiring landscapes and learnt every day more about the places we visited and ourselves.
Filming and writing is, however, the area where we learnt most. Brainstorming on the content of videos and articles, preparing interviews, writing articles, filming, sound and video editing: these were the precious things we were learning on the go while crossing South America.
This was my first paid job as a video maker.
I couldn’t have wished for a better debut.
Camila and me introducing the city where it all began and demonstrating how boring we are.
Ayacucho is the most exciting South American city you’ve never heard about. It’s also the place of kick-ass community projects, some of which are supported by our partner, the travel agency Joker.
Avansa-Citizenne, a Brussels-based NGO asked me to film the Hospitality Festival, a yearly event they organise with other organisations representing Latino, European, African and Asian Brussels residents. The festival takes place just before the muslim fasting month of ramadan. It’s a celebration of diversity in one of the world’s most cosmopolitan cities.
During the year I spent in Rio I worked as a tourist guide, a photographer and a language teacher.
I also had some fun filming gleeful cariocas enjoying themselves during the world’s biggest party, the Rio carnival.
There is an archipelago in Norway just above the Arctic circle that looks like a paradise on Earth. It’s called Lofoten. During two summers I had a privilege to guide tourists around these ecstatic islands. I came back to enjoy two more summers with my Viking friends. Anders is one of them. He is the oldest glassblower in Northern Norway and he knows his craft.
in an abandoned residence in Rio and during a hitchhiking trip to Iran.
I am currently working on three documentary movie projects.
Each of them is at a different level of production.
All of them are personal and socially relevant stories.
For potential producers and partners, I created a password-protected page with an outline, my motivation and my vision for each movie.
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