Mark Brecke is an award-winning filmmaker and photographer with nearly three decades of experience documenting conflicts and humanitarian crises across the globe, beginning in 1995. His work uniquely integrates film, photographic stills, text, and both found and recorded sound.
Originating from San Francisco's experimental film scene, Mark's formal education includes cinema studies at City College of San Francisco under Philip Greene (an apprentice of Ansel Adams and assistant to Dorothea Lange), followed by studies with underground filmmaker Craig Baldwin at the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned a B.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies. He further honed his craft, receiving an MFA in film from the California College of the Arts.
Mark's work has garnered international recognition, with screenings and exhibitions at prestigious venues such as the Toronto International Film Festival, Sao Paulo International Film Festival, Jewish Museum in Berlin, Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston. His work has also been featured on prominent media outlets including CNN, National Geographic, NPR, Google Earth, Village Voice, and Democracy Now. Notable collections housing Mark's photographs include the United States Memorial Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. and the Museo de Memoria y Tolerancia in Mexico City.
In addition to his artistic practice, Mark is an accomplished lecturer and has presented extensively both nationally and internationally at institutions such as New York University, Harvard University, San Francisco Art Institute, University of California Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, Google (including a Google Tech Talk at their Mountain View headquarters), the United States Senate in Washington D.C., and Aga Khan University in Nairobi, Kenya, where he was based for several years while developing a new film in Somalia, titled Somalia in the Picture, which is currently touring world-wide, at Film Festivals, Museums, Art-spaces, Single Screen Movie Theaters, & Universities.
Filmography
Somalia in the Picture (2025) 89 min. 4k, color/b/w, sound. How three American filmmakers became involved in the making of Somalia's last feature film, before the 1991 civil war, and the journey to find the only print left of that film, along the way uncovering Somalia's nearly 100 years of achievement in cinema.
They Turned Our Desert into Fire (2007) 88 min. HD, color/b/w, sound. For twelve Amtrak passengers, a cross-country train trip becomes an emotional journey into the heart of the Darfur tragedy.
War as a Second Language (2002) 26 min. Super 8, color / b/w, sound. The sounds of the Vietnam war are juxtaposed with moving and still images that were shot in Vietnam and Cambodia in 1995. Tourists replace soldiers and the audio mix becomes a haunting narrative about history and the legacies of war.
Art, Occupation and Fear (2002) time-based installation,10 min. Super 8, color, sound. The Second Intifada seen through Israeli and Palestinian artist.
Hilton Hotel (2001) 3 min. Super 8, b/w with Theremin sound track. A camera’s survey of an abandon hotel in the jungle of Cambodia’s south-western port of Kampong Som.
The Men's Room (1996, Super 8, with live recording of a confession, 7 min).
Mannequin Duo Projection (1995) installation, 3 min. Super 8, color, inner-titles silent. A multiple projected narrative about the HIV epidemic told between three different women of color.
It's My News (1995) 10 min. Super 8, b/w time-lapse, sound. A POV street view through the display window of a coin operated newspaper box in San Francisco’s financial district from sunrise to sunset.
Bodega (1994) 20min. Video, Color, sound, with Jonathan Richman soundtrack. The America neighborhood corner grocery store, competing with the larger chain stores.
Kool-Aid (1989) 5 min. Super 8, color, silent. A life size Kool-Aid Pitcher takes on Toxic Man among the wreckage of San Francisco’s Loma Prieta earthquake.
MUNI (1988) 3min. Super 8, color, silent. A camera’s POV of a streetcar’s tracks, through the city of San Francisco.
Selected Lectures
2017 New York University (Cinema Studies)
2014 Aga Khan University, Nairobi Kenya.
2009 The South American Seminar for Promotion and Equality, Salvador Brazil.
2008 San Francisco Art Institute
2007 University of California Berkeley, Graduate School of Journalism
2006 Google Tech Talk, Google headquarters, Mountain View California.
2006 World Affairs Council, San Francisco California.
2006 The Watson Institute for International Studies Brown University, Providence Rhode Island.
2005 Kennedy School of Government Harvard University, Cambridge MA.
2005 University of California Los Angeles, School of Law
2005 United States Senate, Washington D.C.
Partnership Projects
DarfurDarfur www.darfurdarfur.org
Google Earth in partnership with the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. www.ushmm.org/googleearth/project/darfur/
New York Times Bestseller Not on Our Watch www.enoughproject.org
U.S. and Int'l Distribution ( streaming, broadcast & dvd's) Contact Documentary Educational Resources www.der.org