Beth interviews Mark

B: Where did you grow up?

M: Well, that’s a good question. I moved 10 times in my first 11 years, well maybe 9 times. So I moved, and all those were within the DC area, so a lot of it was living in DC, some of it was in Maryland, in various parts. The furthest away from DC I lived was in Cumberland, Maryland, which is really close to the Pennsylvania border like northwest Maryland. But I changed schools pretty much every year.

B: Why did you move so much?

M: I dunno, my parents weren’t in the military or anything. Just, I think jobs, hoping to get a better house here or there. At one point my parents split up, and that was when we were living in DC, and my dad went bankrupt so we had to move outside of the city.

B: What is your family like?

M: My brother is an ex-marine, well he’s a Marine Iraq veteran, who’s really conservative, and spies on China for a living. And my younger brother works for a really conservative law firm, but he’s actually a really liberal person. I mean, liberal in the more contemporary sense of the word I think. But they’re both really smart people. And he’s a lot of fun. We used to go when we were in high school; he was one of my best friends, definitely in high school. I probably hung out with him more than anybody else, maybe not that much but a lot, and we would just go and get coffee until 3 in the morning once or twice a week and just have ridiculous conversations. He’s a good guy. He lives in DC too, so it’s been nice to see him a lot lately. My sister is incredible. She lives in Norway right now, but she’s sort of in school in England, and she’s an animator and an illustrator. I love her, love her to death. And then my dad, he lives in DC and he is an incredibly well intentioned nice man. Well intentioned is probably the best – that encompasses a lot – good and bad. And my mom is really brilliant. She was a ballerina and she has written science textbooks, and has taught all over the world. And she imparted none of that grace from her dancing days or her scientific ability because I’m the worst person ever. And we have huge extended families.

B: Why did you decide to go to VCU?

I originally took a year off after high school, a year and a half off, and went to George Mason University and was there for a couple years and worked with a really awesome professor, who I went to Haiti and the Dominican Republic with. After those experiences I was having a really hard time being in school and I started hopping trains and working on a film about individuals around the country that choose to be homeless and travel around on freight trains and hitch hike. And I just followed and interviewed a bunch of them, made a film and spent a couple years, two and a half years, doing that. And I was 25 at that point so I moved back to Richmond because I could het the full pell grant and I could afford to go back to school. And vcu accepted me and the film department was really into the idea of me using super 8, which is one of my favorite mediums. So it just seemed like a good fit, and I had a lot of friends in Richmond. When you hop trains, a lot of trains go through Richmond so I had developed a lot of friendships and had a lot of friends from high school that ended up moving to Richmond as well. It seemed like the right fit.

B: How long have you been doing film stuff?

M: Not that long, since I was about 21, 20 maybe. 20 or 21. So six and a half years probably.

B: Were you ever into art in high school?

M: I don’t think so, I played music a lot. That is what I did. I played a lot of music and skateboarded a lot, and neither one of them did I do very well. But I worked all the time. I made art in the sense that I did a lot of fliers. Those were always really fun collages. And I did a lot of collages in my room of old magazines and photographs that I took or found or whatever. But, no, I never took art classes until I went to college. I didn’t think I was going to go for any art. I originally thought that I was going to go for English and sociology. 

B: have you had a favorite class at VCU?

M: At VCU? Yeah probably. I would say my favorite class, well Michael would want me to say… Um, no I think. It’s an interesting question. I would say I’ve been most challenged by my sociological theory class, which I really really enjoyed. But artistically challenged? I dunno, I think I’ve enjoyed working with professors outside of class a lot more than I’ve enjoyed any particular class, I can say that for sure. There have been a lot of professors that have been really generous with their time at talking about projects outside of the classroom setting. I think that’s helped more than any particular class.

B: That’s awesome

M: It’s been really nice, just bother them like crazy

B: So when did you decide that you were going to start doing, I guess socially engaged films?

M: I think when, probably when I was in… I know when I first wanted to make a film was when I saw Jim Cohen’s Fugazi documentary, Instrument. And that was, I kinda felt like I wasn’t ever going to be a good enough musician, and I didn’t think that I could ever make a narrative film that I would really like, so I watched that movie and it was just so incredible. He spent 10 years with an incredible group of people. And it’s just this amazing collage of all these different mediums and all these moments. And it’s just such an interesting – I’d never seen a film done like that, and if you haven’t seen it, its really beautiful. But it’s just like hundreds upon hundreds of different moments and its just really cool. So that really inspired me. And actually going to George Mason I was working with a couple professors who showed me some work that immediately that pushed me down that path. But I never wanted to do a Michael Moore type film where I’m in it or anything like that. It’s always been much like, every film I’ve ever made has been, I’ve been pretty removed so I think there are some similarities from when I was 21 until now but hopefully the work is getting better.

B: Do you have a favorite artist or filmmaker?

M: It changes all the time. I’d say that’s impossible. I really like… I’d say my favorite writer right now that’s talking about art is Claire Bishop. I think that she is really challenging to a lot of the things that I thought I understood. My favorite filmmaker right now… that’s hard – I have no idea. I actually don’t ever watch movies – I’ve watched, probably in the past year, like 3 movies maybe. Yeah, I dunno, I never have time to watch movies. I’m really interested in social practice art right now, which is just like community based art that kind of doesn’t have as much authorship – and that seems to be where my brain keeps drifting. But I really like Jim Goldberg, he’s one of my favorites for sure.