Petaluma native Austin Smagalski is making a name for himself in the world of filmmaking as an editor and director, finding success in the freelance industry.
His subject matter focuses on raising awareness for situations both positive and negative, ranging from hometown heroes to survivors of abuse. A graduate of Petaluma High School and Santa Rosa Junior College, Smagalski speaks high praise for the community that he grew up in.
“?Petaluma is a fantastic town, and I’m very lucky to have grown up there,” said Smagalski.
Film was always the direction in which he wanted his life to head, and he made that dream a reality with his studies at the SRJC.
“I had wanted to be a filmmaker since I was 6 years old and I started taking filmmaking classes in my sophomore year at Petaluma High School,” he said. “After high school, I started taking film classes at the SRJC Petaluma campus and continued making short films with a group of friends. My last year at SRJC, I found a cinematographer, Khalil Omer, and an editor, Noah Diamond, that I really enjoyed working with.”
The trio’s first successful piece was the short film “Wake,” which was released in 2014. This effort earned them selections for film festivals in three countries, as well as the Emerging Artist Award at the McMinnville Short Film Festival in Oregon.
Smagalski also works locally in Sonoma County, doing promotional work for several local businesses including Bellyful Dinners and the Petaluma Film Alliance. Petaluma residents really got to know Smagalski in 2013 with the release of his documentary about Petaluma Batman. The film vaulted him into the spotlight and landed him a multitude of new opportunities.
“I had seen a lot of the good work Petaluma Batman was doing and I offered to do a short documentary on him,” he said. “The short was featured by the Huffington Post and got upwards of 27,000 views. Because of this, I ended up getting a production assistant job on the feature documentary ‘Legends of the Knight.’
His most recent project has a serious tone, focusing on the overlooked but relevant issue of males who undergo sexual abuse. His latest short film is titled “Unspoken,” and is currently available for download at no cost.
“The film revolves around the statistic that one in six men will be sexually abused before the age of 18. The title, ‘Unspoken’ refers to the stigma male abuse survivors face, and how many boys and men will refuse to speak out about abuse,” said Smagalski. “The film is set in a gay-to-straight conversion camp, a topic that the media covered thoroughly in the early 2000s but fell out of the spotlight by 2006.”
Smagalski has a core team that he works with regularly, and in this case those team members are none other than Khalil Omer and Noah Diamond - the two that he had begun working with at SRJC. As they are also Petaluma natives, ‘Unspoken’ is a film developed, written, directed and edited by Petalumans.
A majority of Smagalski’s current work is purely film editing, but he aims to expand his repertoire to other aspects of the film industry.
“My ultimate goal is to write and direct psychological thrillers,” he said.
With the goal of making the film accessible and not restricted to film festival attendees, it has been made available to download and view on Smagalski’s website, austinsmagalski.com.
Born and raised here in Petaluma, Smagalski proves that success can be found and enjoyed while still maintaining the vital connections to home that make every success greater.
(Contact Michaela Western at argus@arguscourier.com)
UPDATED: Please read and follow our commenting policy: