Mariel McEwan

 

Mariel is an alumna of the American Film Institute with an MA degree in Dance and Theater Department from the University of New Mexico.

Now living in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Mariel is a freelance writer, director, and editor specializing in dance choreographed for the camera, Her dance camera videos have been screened in national and international Dance Camera Festivals including the Lincoln Center in New York and venues in Europe, South America and Asia. Her video Pilgrimage won the "Filmmaker of the Year Gold Award" at an International Indonesian Film Festival in 2015.

 

 

Mariel is the videographer for The New York Baroque Dance Company’s Summer Workshop in Historical Dance Weekend which features the work of Catherine Turocy and guest artists. Mariel has compiled more than 60 videos on a Vimeo dance channel. 

 

 

 Niu Niu’s Story and Against the Dark of Night were created in collaboration with Jia Wu from Shanghai, China. They have been screen in many international dance camera festival.  These and other pieces may be viewed on this website. 

 

 Mariel and Jia Wu co-instructed a Dance Camera Workshop for graduate and undergraduates at St. Mary’s College in Moraga, California for 3 years ending in February 2018. 

 

While living in Sun Valley, Idaho, she worked with the Footlight Dance Centre to create an original three-act ballet based on the book Bijou, Bonbon & Beau, the Kittens Who Danced for Degas by Joan Sweeney. For the production, she produced animated slides that were used as projections featuring French Impressionistic paintings of the streets of Paris, Degas’ paintings of ballerinas and an animated theatre of the Paris Opera.

 

 

In 1988 Mariel moved to Los Angeles to attend the American Film Institute as a Producing Fellow. After graduating she worked for the film production companies Jones Inter-Cable and Mitsubishi. From 2004-2006 she worked at Sparkhill creating DVD bonus documentaries for the Warner’s and Paramount Studio for the re-release of classic films such as The Thin Man Collection for Warner’s Home Video and a series of documentaries for seven John Wayne films for Batjac Productions and Paramount Home Video which included The High and the Mighty, Island in the Sky, Hondo, McLintock, The Track of the Cat and Seven Men from Now.

 

 

Mariel is a student of both folk and classical Japanese Dance. She began her earliest studies as a young student at UCLA with the Bugaku master, Suenobu Togi. In 1999 she became a member of the folk dance group Hoshun Kai taught by Hoshun sensei Kimi Kawamura. It is a branch of the Nippon Minyo Kenkuyo Kai based in Nagoya, Japan, lead by Kachi Hosin sensei. She has studied classical Japanese dance for five years with Dianne Fukuwa of the Fujima Seiyumi Kai (school) Returning once again in 2009 to UCLA’s Department of World Arts and Cultures Mariel participated in classes conducted by the Japanese dancers Eiko and Koma.

 

 

Mariel has received two grants from the California Council for the Humanities. The first grant assisted her in the research and production of Reconcile. The documentary explored the lives of three children of different ethnic and political backgrounds, growing up and surviving in Nazi Germany during WW II. In the post-war era, all three emigrated to the US to attend universities to begin the process of adapting themselves to new political realities and relationships. This hour-long work was based on the best selling book An Uncommon Friendship by Frederick Tubach and Bernie Rosner. Reconcile was screened at film festivals and at many community discussion groups in Southern and Northern California.

 

 

The second grant supported the staging of her original theatre piece Love’s Wild Desire at the California State University in Los Angeles. A mixed media presentation based on 18th-century poetry, music dealing with Love, Seduction, and Marriage. The show was first performed at the Mark Taper Auditorium at the main branch of the Los Angeles Public Library. In August 2011, it was presented by the American High School Theater Festival at the Edinburgh International Fringe Theater Festival. In February 2012 it was presented as a Valentine Day special event and fundraiser for the Ridgecrest Branch of the Kern County Library sponsored by the SpringHIll Suits by Marriott.