Jessica Marcy
Jessica Marcy is an award-winning filmmaker and journalist with extensive experience in nonprofit communications and creative leadership. Currently based in Ireland, she produces social documentaries that explore connections across cultures and the environment.
She most recently worked as a researcher for Venom Films, a Sundance and BAFTA award-winning documentary production company in Dublin. She also directed A Tree Story: Gullah/Geechee Roots and Resilience, which is currently doing a festival run, including at the Festival International du Film Panafricain de Cannes and the DC Black Film Festival. Marcy is a 2021 Pulitzer Center Reporting Fellow and reported on the intersection of climate change, migration, and Mayan Indigenous beliefs in a project titled Guatemala: Calling in the Spirit.
For nearly eight years, Marcy worked at the American Institutes for Research, leading a creative team that produced video and visual stories. Her film and journalism work has appeared in outlets such as National Geographic, Maryland Public Television, the Washington Post, NPR, MSNBC, McClatchy, ReVista: Harvard Review of Latin America, and Kaiser Health News, where she was a staff reporter. She has presented her film research and scripts at the University Film and Video Association (UFVA) four times and taught filmmaking to different groups. She has received funding through the US Department of State to teach filmmaking to young women in Mali and previously served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Mali.
Marcy studied Latin American studies at Barnard College and holds a master’s degree from the Columbia Journalism School, a graduate certificate in documentary filmmaking from George Washington University, and an MFA in film and media arts from American University. She speaks Spanish, French, and Bambara, a major West African language.
Featured Work: A Tree Story: Gullah/Geechee Roots and Resilience; Broken Land: Confronting Climate Change and Migration in Guatemala
Upcoming Projects: A film based in Ireland about Irish women is currently in development.
