Student Profile: Marlie Waks
The Cinema Studies Institute highlights the achievements of M.A. student Marlie Waks (Class of 2010).
Marlie Waks
A Master of Arts student in Cinema Studies, Marlie Waks brought her passion for films with social impact to help STAND Canada, the leading organization in Canada for youth-led anti-genocide advocacy and activism, with a ten-city tour of the film Darfur (2009).
In addition to her studies in film and her duties as a teaching assistant for Introduction to Film Study, Marlie took on the demanding job of Film Tour Manager for the premiere of Uwe Boll and Chris Roland’s film Darfur, an interpretive account of a group of journalists visiting the war-torn Darfur region of Sudan. They are confronted with the dilemma of returning home to report on atrocities they have seen, or to stay behind and help some of the victims they have encountered.
Darfur Film Tour
Between November and February, Marlie managed the Toronto team that assisted in the organization and execution of the ten-city tour across Canada. In addition to organizing a team of volunteers, she also secured sponsors to finance the tour, organized the distribution of the film across Canada, managed publicity and promotion of the film tour, and coordinated guest speakers who accompanied each screening. “Working as a TA in the graduate program really gave me the confidence to lead a national team of over thirty students in this project,” Marlie says.
Her remarkable drive and attention to detail has made the tour a great success. “Darfur is a co-production between Vancouver and South Africa. By studying cultural and national theory in the Cinema Studies program I gained insight on how to market a global text such as Darfur to local audiences.”
article by Tony Pi, Graduate Program Assistant
May 2010