Mark Brecke is an award-winning filmmaker and photographer, who's work documents the stories of individuals victimized by war, ethnic conflict, and genocide over the last 24 years.
Emerging from the experimental film community in San Francisco, Brecke studied cinema with Phillip Greene (apprentice of Ansel Adams and assistant to Dorothea Lange) and continued his studies at UC Berkeley with found-footage filmmaker, Craig Baldwin and experimental filmmaker Ernie Gehr.
Brecke's work has been widely featured internationally including micro-cinemas, Toronto International Film Festival, Sao Paulo International Film Festival, Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, His work has been featured on CNN, National Geographic, NPR, Google Earth, Village Voice, and Democracy Now. Collections that showcase Brecke's photographs include the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. and the Museo de Memoria y Tolerancia in Mexico City. Brecke's current film on Somalia is in post production with a story spanning four continents in twelve cities.
Filmography
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