Bio

Mark Brecke is an independent filmmaker and documentary photographer.

Covering ten years and three continents (Asia, Africa, and Europe), his work documents the stories of people victimized by war, ethnic conflict, and genocide.

In 2003 Mark worked as the photographer for a book project called Letters to America. He traveled to five countries, including Iraq where he was an embedded photographer during the invasion. Letters to America was released by River Wood Books in June of 2005.

In 2004, Amnesty International selected Mark’s experimental documentary, War as a Second Language, to be included in their permanent film archive. Screened both domestically and internationally, War as a Second Language is about US foreign policy in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War.

The focus of Mark’s recent work is on the crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan. From October to late December of last year (2004), he visited the refugee camps of eastern Chad and traveled for five weeks in Darfur with the SLA (Sudanese Liberation Army). Since his return last December he has been touring with his images of Darfur and giving lecture/slide presentations at a variety of venues, small and large, including law schools, galleries, and radio programs such as Amy Goodman’s “Democracy Now.”

Last July, Mark was invited to Capitol Hill by Senator Sam Brownback, and the Genocide Intervention Fund to give his Darfur presentation to members of Congress. The train-trip by AMTRAK from San Francisco to Washington D.C. presented an opportunity to raise awareness about the Darfur crisis and provided the subject for his next documentary film. The film captures passengers’ reactions to photos and stories as they are informed about the crisis in Darfur and interviewed for National Public Radio. The film is currently in post-production.