Minna Zielonka -Packer Biography

Minna Zielonka -Packer is a filmmaker and artist, born and bred in New York City. Trained in fine arts and media studies, she received her professional education at Pratt Institute (MFA) in New York, and at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (BFA), and Dalhousie University, in Canada. She attended the famous High School of the Performing Arts in NYC, where she studied drama.

Her film credits include the award winning, The Apology, awarded a jury prize at the New York Women’s Film festival.  She is the director and writer of the documentary, Back To Gombin (distributed by the National Center for Jewish Film). This one hour documentary has been selected by numerous film festivals including, The Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival, New Jersey Jewish Film Festival, Back East Film Festival, Washington Jewish Film Festival, and has been broadcast internationally, including multiple broadcasts on Israeli and American television.

Zielonka-Packer was recently awarded a Fulbright Scholar grant to create the film, The Lilliput, from her script, to be shot in Poland in 2008. Other awards received, include a fellowship grant from The New Jersey State Council on the Arts, and a cultural grant from the Gombin Jewish Historical and Genealogical Society.

Zielonka-Packer lives in Hoboken, New Jersey, with her husband, Wayne Packer, and their son, Soren, and daughter, Mimi.