Marie Alarcón

Two people in black and white costumes with both hands raised and heads tilted to the left

Marie Alarcon (BA, Evergreen, ‘08. MFA, UPenn, ‘14) is an experimental video artist trained in Documentary Filmmaking and Time Based Media working as a community media educator and producer in Philadelphia since 2009. Alarcon's work looks at hidden histories through the lens of place and its production. Her expansive process oriented practice often includes collaboration with dancers and musicians, bridging performance, sound, and assemblage/collage. Residencies include Elsewhere Museum (NC), Goodhart (MI), and Leeway x Icebox residency (PA). Alarcon's screenings and performances include BlackStar Film Festival, Harlem International Film Fest, and ICA Philadelphia. Their fellowships and grants include the Flaherty Film Fellowship (‘10), Leeway Art and Change Grant (‘09, ‘18), Doc Society-Good Pitch Local production grant (19), and Independence Public Media Foundation Production Grant (‘20). They are currently an artist in residence at Roswell AIR, in Roswell, NM.

Grantee type
Filmmaker

Grants Awarded to Marie Alarcón

$35,000 - Awarded December 2020

Focus areas
Representation in Media
Description

The 2020 film grant will support "Dilemma of a Bird in a Mirror," a soft-horror fever dream where a femme's psyche splits as she struggles through societal expectations on the eve of her birthday. This is an approximately 25-minute fiction short film, featuring an all POC (people of color) cast, addressing identity, conformity, disability, mental health, and transformation. Drawing on absurdist theater, existential nihilism, queerness, and their intersections with disability, this film is influenced by the underground aesthetics of filmmakers like Jodorowsky, Lynch, and La Nouvelle Vague experimentation to tell the story of a main character's nervous breakdown and eventual recovery and transformation.

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