Peter Domankiewicz

Biography

Peter Domankiewicz is a film director, screenwriter and journalist with a long-standing interest in the origins of cinema. He is currently working on a fully funded PhD at De Montfort University, Leicester, UK, examining the work and inventions of the controversial moving picture pioneer, William Friese-Greene. In 2023 he undertook an AHRC-funded Smithsonian Fellowship at the National Museum of American History in Washington DC, where he carried out a survey of their Early Cinema Collection, drawing attention to several overlooked figures and their inventions. He has written about early film for Sight & Sound and The Guardian, contributed to reference works and academic journals and co-authored a book with Deac Rossell & Barry Anthony, Finding Birt Acres (University of Exeter Press, forthcoming 2024) about Britain’s first commercial filmmaker. He has given talks at conferences, symposia, film festivals and BFI Southbank. His blog William Friese-Greene & Me, presents original research on early film history for a broad readership.