Marco Orsini(I)
- Producer
- Director
- Writer
Marco Orsini was born in Puerto Rico and is a writer, director, filmmaker, producer, philanthropist and film festival fixture who sees audio-visual storytelling as an unrivaled means to educate, advocate and inspire.
Marco's childhood was largely spent overseas, deployed with his army-officer father and mother to postings in South Korea and Japan during the late years of Vietnam. Well traveled and polyglot, he returned to the US at eleven years of age, arriving to integration wars at school and white flight from his Decatur, GA, neighborhood. As a gay, Hispanic, roller-figure-skating champion, Marco came of age negotiating a black, white and Baptist world, sometimes passing, sometimes targeted, rarely understood but usually understanding. He was an outsider with a global perspective and ambitions to match.
Beginning his entertainment career in Los Angeles, Marco produced over 60 hours of programming in English and Spanish for network broadcast, including live events and talent competitions (Telemundo, Fox, Pax, Columbia-TriStar, UPN, Hearst). In 2000, he met his life partner, insurance executive Mark Brockbank, and relocated to London, Monaco, Miami and Mykonos, where he re-branded himself as a writer, director and producer.
Marco's first short, "Mari-Conita De Jesus" (2001) toured the festival circuit before being included in Princeton's Latin American Studies curriculum. In 2002, the National Association of Latino Independent Producers named Marco an Up and Coming filmmaker. His first script, "American Way" (2004), a feature biopic, was developed at Tribeca's inaugural All-Access program; the next year, his second short, "Un Dia en la Vida" (2005), premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. During this time, a bucket-list trip to Ethiopia, organized by his husband for a group of friends, became Marco's project when Mark fell ill. Marco brought a camera crew and over five weeks touring Ethiopia's spectacular terrain and learning its incredible history, he shot his first documentary, "The Reluctant Traveler" (2008).
Any reluctance ended there as Orsini returned to Addis Ababa in company with UNESCO, the US and Indian Embassies for meetings with the Ethiopian Education Ministry about re-constituting a national film industry. Marco co-founded the International Emerging Film Talent Association (IEFTA), a Monaco based non-profit dedicated to engaging in the art of film and focused on emerging talent from the global south enabling creative storytellers from under-resourced nations gain financial support and mentorship. A decade before international film-festivals and marketplaces began holding space and pointing resources to the demographic, the International Emerging Film Talent Association was doing the work that has brought imitation, influence and partnerships with UNHCR, the European Film Market and Cannes Festival du Marche among other festivals and markets.
Identifying and developing emerging talent for the global industry, Marco continued making documentaries about urgent subjects and difficult issues. "Dinner in the No-Go's", (2011) examined the Arab Spring through a series of conversations in contested locales; "Gray Matters" (2015) explored the life, art and ideas of modernist artist, designer and architect Eileen Gray; the short, "Dangerous Crossings", publicized the troubles of irregular migration and was produced in partnership with the UN Refugee Agency; "Beyond the Raging Sea" (2019) retold a true-life mid-ocean rescue as a allegory of the refugee crisis in the Mediterranean. "Latin 4 Plus" (2023), celebrates Marco Orsini's father's musical adventures during the Vietnam war and the legacy of fifty years of Latino integration in the US.
Since 2019, Marco and the IEFTA have partnered with UN Refugee Agency to produce the "Refugee Voices in Film" program at the Marché du Cannes, EFM and Egypt's El Gouna Film Festival. That collaboration was inspired by earlier work with the UN Refugee Agency on the Dangerous Crossings public service video, directed by Amr Salama and featuring many of Africa's most popular singers performing music by George Acogny.
While his own projects have been consistently and favorable reviewed in the trades, Orsini is proudest of his work on behalf of those in need and those whose stories would remain otherwise untold.
Marco's life, work and hospitality in Europe, America and throughout the Middle East, South East Asia and the horn of Africa have resulted in friendships and relationships spanning cultures and decades. His great talent, beyond what he calls 'competence as a filmmaker', is for connecting people with people and the resources and institutions needed to realize projects. In that work, he is relentless. For Orsini, charm and charisma combine with a keen understanding of the festival circuit, the film marketplace and the institutions that underwrite independent film development worldwide.
Marco's childhood was largely spent overseas, deployed with his army-officer father and mother to postings in South Korea and Japan during the late years of Vietnam. Well traveled and polyglot, he returned to the US at eleven years of age, arriving to integration wars at school and white flight from his Decatur, GA, neighborhood. As a gay, Hispanic, roller-figure-skating champion, Marco came of age negotiating a black, white and Baptist world, sometimes passing, sometimes targeted, rarely understood but usually understanding. He was an outsider with a global perspective and ambitions to match.
Beginning his entertainment career in Los Angeles, Marco produced over 60 hours of programming in English and Spanish for network broadcast, including live events and talent competitions (Telemundo, Fox, Pax, Columbia-TriStar, UPN, Hearst). In 2000, he met his life partner, insurance executive Mark Brockbank, and relocated to London, Monaco, Miami and Mykonos, where he re-branded himself as a writer, director and producer.
Marco's first short, "Mari-Conita De Jesus" (2001) toured the festival circuit before being included in Princeton's Latin American Studies curriculum. In 2002, the National Association of Latino Independent Producers named Marco an Up and Coming filmmaker. His first script, "American Way" (2004), a feature biopic, was developed at Tribeca's inaugural All-Access program; the next year, his second short, "Un Dia en la Vida" (2005), premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. During this time, a bucket-list trip to Ethiopia, organized by his husband for a group of friends, became Marco's project when Mark fell ill. Marco brought a camera crew and over five weeks touring Ethiopia's spectacular terrain and learning its incredible history, he shot his first documentary, "The Reluctant Traveler" (2008).
Any reluctance ended there as Orsini returned to Addis Ababa in company with UNESCO, the US and Indian Embassies for meetings with the Ethiopian Education Ministry about re-constituting a national film industry. Marco co-founded the International Emerging Film Talent Association (IEFTA), a Monaco based non-profit dedicated to engaging in the art of film and focused on emerging talent from the global south enabling creative storytellers from under-resourced nations gain financial support and mentorship. A decade before international film-festivals and marketplaces began holding space and pointing resources to the demographic, the International Emerging Film Talent Association was doing the work that has brought imitation, influence and partnerships with UNHCR, the European Film Market and Cannes Festival du Marche among other festivals and markets.
Identifying and developing emerging talent for the global industry, Marco continued making documentaries about urgent subjects and difficult issues. "Dinner in the No-Go's", (2011) examined the Arab Spring through a series of conversations in contested locales; "Gray Matters" (2015) explored the life, art and ideas of modernist artist, designer and architect Eileen Gray; the short, "Dangerous Crossings", publicized the troubles of irregular migration and was produced in partnership with the UN Refugee Agency; "Beyond the Raging Sea" (2019) retold a true-life mid-ocean rescue as a allegory of the refugee crisis in the Mediterranean. "Latin 4 Plus" (2023), celebrates Marco Orsini's father's musical adventures during the Vietnam war and the legacy of fifty years of Latino integration in the US.
Since 2019, Marco and the IEFTA have partnered with UN Refugee Agency to produce the "Refugee Voices in Film" program at the Marché du Cannes, EFM and Egypt's El Gouna Film Festival. That collaboration was inspired by earlier work with the UN Refugee Agency on the Dangerous Crossings public service video, directed by Amr Salama and featuring many of Africa's most popular singers performing music by George Acogny.
While his own projects have been consistently and favorable reviewed in the trades, Orsini is proudest of his work on behalf of those in need and those whose stories would remain otherwise untold.
Marco's life, work and hospitality in Europe, America and throughout the Middle East, South East Asia and the horn of Africa have resulted in friendships and relationships spanning cultures and decades. His great talent, beyond what he calls 'competence as a filmmaker', is for connecting people with people and the resources and institutions needed to realize projects. In that work, he is relentless. For Orsini, charm and charisma combine with a keen understanding of the festival circuit, the film marketplace and the institutions that underwrite independent film development worldwide.