Marilena is a multimedia artist working primarily in video production and editing for documentary film and journalism.
About
Marilena is a documentary filmmaker and editor. She is currently working on Educating Elizabeth about high school students organizing against the school-to-prison pipeline for Latino Public Broadcasting. Her co-produced short doc Ezra Dowry: Life on Broadway was an official selection of the New York City Mental Health Film Festival, 2016. She co-directed and edited Liquid Handcuffs: A Documentary To Free Methadone which premiered at the Reel Recovery Film Festivals in New York City and Los Angeles in 2019. In 2022 she co-directed and edited a followup short doc Swallow THIS: A Documentary About Methadone and Covid-19, with funding from Open Society Foundations (OSF). She toured the film across the United States as part of a social impact campaign sponsored by OSF and the National Harm Reduction Coalition from January 2023-March 2024. Marilena has received multiple grants between 2019 and 2024 to document the impact of e-cigarettes on adults' ability to quit smoking. Marilenas video journalism has appeared on the news websites CityLimits.org and Filtermag.org.
Marilena is a long time advocate for equity in education. She was a former member of the Chicago Teachers Union and United Federation of Teachers. She produced and edited short videos to support campaigns for police-free schools and Black Lives Matter At School. In 2016 she founded the Film Festival From MARS: An Annual Showcase of Media Art By Students in Special Education on the basis of her belief that children with disabilities deserve greater access to the arts. Her film and video work with students in Special Education garnered her grants from the Citizens Committee For New York City and the NYC departments of Cultural Affairs and Sanitation.
