About Marnie Ellen

Baltimore City

Marnie Ellen Hertzler is a filmmaker living and working in Baltimore, Maryland. Her films often explore a multi-media approach to film presentation and distribution and has utilized live performance and installation to accompany her work. 

Her first feature film, CRESTONE, is a hybrid-documentary set in a dystopian future where the last people alive are a group of SoundCloud rappers. CRESTONE premiered at True/False in 2020, and went on to play at SXSW, CPH:DOX, and many… more

Dream Throat

Dream Throat hotel room installation: Hotel Monteleone, New Orleans 2014 (Prospect 3+, New Orleans)


Synopsis: Welcome to a room that has hosted numerous tenants. This room is a collector of dreams, aggression, love, lust, and pain. You are the subject of it's experiment as you participate in a brief document of these particular collected occurrences. The tenants change while the stiff taxidermy and rose wallpaper remain as viewers like yourself. You are invited to an in depth and darkened view of what these thorns have collected. Here, stories stain the floor and soak into the mattress of a room we like to call Dream Throat

Dream Throat is an immersive, touring,  installation. Written, shot, and edited all in one room, this film installation focuses on the visitor’s relationships within a singular, yet dynamic space. Because the setting of both the film and the installation is a hotel room, a hypothetical mirror is created, allowing the viewer to actively experience the film as a situation, rather than passively view it as a spectator in a theatre.

Other installation locations:
Miami, Florida (Borscht Film Festival) 2015
Tampa, Florida (Gasparilla Film Festival) 2015
Glasgow, Scotland (Glasgow Short Film Festival) 2015
Baltimore, Maryland (Maryland Film Festival) 2015
Wilmington, North Carolina (Cucalorus Film Festival) 2015

(2014)
  • Dream Throat Hotel Room Installation
    Dream Throat hotel room installation, Hotel Monteleone, New Orleans 2014
  • Dream Throat Teaser
    A voice mail recording left from one early cast member backing of the production two days before the shoot date.
  • Dream Throat Trailer
    This is the trailer to the 20 minute short film shown in the Dream Throat installation. Dir. Michael Arcos
  • Dream Throat Video Still
    Dream Throat Video Still
    Video Still
  • Dream Throat Video Still
    Dream Throat Video Still
    Video Still
  • Dream Throat Installation
    Dream Throat Installation
    Aloft Hotel, Tampa
  • Hotel Installation
    Hotel Installation
    Lord Baltimore Hotel, Baltimore
  • Dream Throat Installation
    Dream Throat Installation
    Hotel Monteleone, New Orleans

GORGON

GORGON is an anthropological video documentation of interactions with lovers, friends, family, and an exploration of the female gaze. Through various social media platforms, recorded FaceTime conversations, text messages, iphone videos, and voice recordings GORGON experiments with a mix of audio-visual media to convey the everyday experiences of a diverse cross-section of young women in a patriarchal society, and my personal struggle to regain my voice as a female filmmaker. Laced with mythology and the surreal, and fueled by the writings of Helene Cixous and Bell Hooks, my goal is to use experimental film and social media to empirically define and convey the female gaze.

“You only have to look at the Medusa straight on to see her. And she's not deadly. She's beautiful and she’s laughing…” - Hélène Cixous

Though this project contains narrative structure, it is rooted in an experimental, autobiographical approach to filmmaking reflecting the nature of life itself. GORGON represents next generation visual narrative because of its unique use of modern day platforms of communication. Because the narrative is written through an amalgamation of different media, GORGON innovatively blurs lines between narrative film, experimental film, social media, and video art.  In an industry dominated by men, GORGON will impact the future of diverse filmmaking and resonate with audiences accustomed to inundation of male gaze. 

This project will be available to view on Instagram and Vimeo beginning summer of 2017. 
  • Gorgon - Teaser (Josh)
  • Daniel Still
    Daniel Still
    Video still
  • Daniel video
    Cell phone video clip
  • Daniel still
    Daniel still
    Video Still
  • Daniel and Marnie still
    Daniel and Marnie still
    video still

Deep Dark Animation Series

Deep Dark is an ongoing series that draws inspiration from suppressed memories, collected secrets, alleged rumors, and personal confessions. Deep Dark acts as an interpretive document of these stories and retells them through symbols, sound, and animation.

Episode 1: Josie and Jade
A plant that grows unusually large and prolific due to its nurturer’s strange secret
(2014, 3 min.)

Episode 2: No Parents
A biographical exploration of small freedoms, boyhood, and unadulterated curiosity
Official Selection, 2015 New Orleans Film Festival
Official Selection, 2015 Cucalorus Film Festival
(2015, 5 min.)

Deep Dark Books: My House
A reading from a book for children by children
(2014, 2 min.)
  • Deep Dark Episode 2: NO PARENTS
    Episode 2: No Parents A biographical exploration of small freedoms, boyhood, and unadulterated curiosity
  • Deep Dark Episode 1: Josie and Jade
    Deep Dark Episode 1: Josie and Jade Full Video
  • Deep Dark Episode 2: NO PARENTS
    Deep Dark Episode 2: NO PARENTS
    Production Still
  • Deep Dark Episode 2: NO PARENTS
    Deep Dark Episode 2: NO PARENTS
    Video Still
  • Deep Dark Episode 2: NO PARENTS
    Deep Dark Episode 2: NO PARENTS
    Video Still
  • Deep Dark Books: My House
    My House full video
  • Deep Dark Books: My House
    Deep Dark Books: My House
    Video Still
  • Deep Dark Episode 1: Josie and Jade
    Deep Dark Episode 1: Josie and Jade
    Video Still
  • Deep Dark Episode 1: Josie and Jade
    Deep Dark Episode 1: Josie and Jade
    Video Still