The U.S. Consulate General Curacao, in cooperation with the organizers of the Curacao International Film Festival Rotterdam (CIFFR), is organizing a series of workshops February 5-11, 2014. The workshops will focus on showing students how they can become filmmakers themselves.
The U.S. Consulate has invited Carmen Marron, a successful Mexican-American filmmaker and the founder of Sparkhope Productions, to direct the workshops. Sparkhope is dedicated to creating films that bring awareness to women’s issues and support cultural diversity. Ms. Marron is also a popular motivational speaker and experienced youth counselor.
Ms. Marron will lead various workshops, classroom presentations and screenings together with students and teachers at Albert Schweitzer HavoVWO, Skuchami, Maria Immaculata Lyceum, St. Paulus VSBO, The International School of Curacao, and the U.S. Consulate.
Carmen Marron grew up in the inner-city of Chicago as one of ten children of immigrant parents from Mexico. She earned a Bachelor’s in Business Administration from DePaul University and a Master’s in Educational Psychology from the University of Arizona. Carmen began her filmmaking aspirations in Arizona while she was a guidance counselor for high-risk elementary school children in South Phoenix. It was then that she began writing the screenplay, "GO FOR IT!" as a response to the disparity in role models for minorities and their reverence for violence on TV and in film. "GO FOR IT!" represents the reality of socio-economically disadvantaged youth and addresses the societal issues they face while integrating the cool underground world of street dance.
After completing her screenplay, she moved to Los Angeles and worked relentlessly on turning her script into a feature film. She wrote, directed and produced the feature in Chicago and Los Angeles. Completing her goal in 2010, "GO FOR IT!" is now doing the festival circuit and has recently won two Audience Awards. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1307926/
As moves on to new projects, Carmen Marron’s goal continues to be to create inspirational and multicultural works such as "GO FOR IT!" which focuses on women and their societal struggles.