Réka Pigniczky is a television journalist, producer and independent documentary filmmaker. She’s worked for the Associated Press Television News for over 10 years, both in New York and Budapest, Hungary. She completed her first feature-length documentary, Journey Home: a story from the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, at the end of 2006. It won awards in Hungary and was invited to screen at a number of international film festivals. She completed her second feature-length documentary, Inkubátor, in 2010, which saw a wide audience in Hungary through a national theatrical release as well as television broadcast, and it enjoyed wide critical acclaim after the Hungarian Film Festival. The film was also voted one of the 25 best films released in Hungary in 2010.
56 Films is actively involved in Hungary’s documentary community, and Réka has taken part in a number of festival juries and international documentary projects. She is also a member of the European Documentary Network (EDN) and the International Documentary Association (IDA).
Réka has an MA in journalism and international relations from Columbia University in New York, and she also has an MA in political science from the Central European University in Budapest. She has a BA in Political Science from the University of California, San Diego.
Réka was born and raised in the U.S. by Hungarian refugee parents and lived in Hungary for 14 years after the Iron Curtain fell, spending the early 1990’s working as a political consultant and volunteer organizer for women’s NGO’s in Hungary. She serves on the board of Blood Mountain Foundation, an international artist residency program based in Budapest. Since 2002, she lives with her family in the San Francisco Bay Area, working as a filmmaker, journalist, cross-cultural events director and proud mother of three bicultural children.
From 2013 she is also the co-Founder and Board Member of the Central European California Cultural Institute, a San Francisco-based NGO which organizes cultural exchange between the two regions. The mission of CECI is to promote Central European film, theater events in California.
Kodály on the Cuyahoga (Kodály a Cuyahogán)
2014, Television Documentary (Duna World), 52 min; Lang: Hungarian
Heritage (Megmaradni)
2013, USA/Hungary; Documentary, 63 min.; Lang: English/Hungarian
The Man who Built Shanghai (Hudec László Élete)
2011, USA/Hungary, Documentary Short, 26 min. Lang: English/Hungarian/Mandarin
Inkubátor (Inkubátor)
2009/2010, USA/Hungary; Creative Documentary, 88 min.; Lang: English/Hungarian
Kazár: from the Cradle to the Grave (Kazár: A Bölcsőtöl a Sírig)
2008, Hungary; Ethnographic Documentary, 45 min; Lang: Hungarian
Journey Home: A Story from the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (Hazatérés)
2006, USA/Hungary; Creative Documentary, 88 min.; Lang: English/Hungarian
HUNGARIAN FILM FESTIAL IN SAN FRANCISCO is a non-profit cultural organization that organizes film screenings, festivals and other film events. The events focus on Central Eastern European feature films and documentaries.
This website was funded by
CECI California European Cultural Initiative
in 2014
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