Marcia

Marcia Fingal is a journalist and a poet, a photographer, documentary filmmaker and veteran fashion and commercial print model. Beginning her career on the catwalks of Paris, London and New York, she appeared in countless fashion editorials, catalogues, print advertisements, a slew of music videos and television commercials.
Marcia was born in Guyana, South America, raised in Hillside, New Jersey and received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English and Journalism from Rutgers University. She has hosted “Uptown” a half hour lifestyle program on the Time Warner Network and is a former assistant to the fashion editor for Essence Magazine. It was there, she developed a fashion sense that helped launch her international modeling career. Marcia knew her fashion and television work would eventually lead to her real passion of documentary filmmaking. “I believe journalism can be used as a real tool for social change and my films focus on issues of socio-political injustices, economics, race, class and gender.”
In the summer of 2002, Marcia went home to Guyana to make her first film. “A Slice of Guyana” is a 50-minute social commentary on the lives and circumstances of people in two small South American villages. The film touches on issues of history and race, politics and health care, economic viability and the linked humanity of people all over the world.
In the wake of the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, Marcia took up her camera again and made her way to the Gulf Coast region, nine months post Katrina (May 2006), determined to tell the most comprehensive story of survivors and the rebuilding of lives. The result was her sophomore film, “Hurricane Katrina: Life After the Storm”.
“This catastrophic storm showed our flaws as a nation, the racism and neglect, the government blunder and prejudice, the ugliness of modern day segregation, poverty and human loss. There was no denying the tragedy of Katrina and the ill treatment of her victims, both the survivors and the dead. Television cameras captured riveting images, spawning new debates on what needed to happen next. I’d like anyone watching my films to feel motivated to participate in those important talks…to confront head-on, the clear injustices that continue to plague modern society and create the necessary sounding boards in their communities, in their local and city governments. The notion of a global village is real and responsibility lies with all of us, regardless of who we are, what we do or where we live.”
Marcia shares that “perhaps I make the films I make out of a need to say ‘thank you’ for an access I was given when my parents emigrated to New Jersey when I was five. Their move to the United States opened doors that might have remained closed had I grown up in Guyana, beautiful but economically strapped Guyana. It’s important to know about the levels of poverty and substandard living of millions of people in far and near corners of our world and a camera can be a real beacon to that end. Racism and social inequity, hypocrisy and economic disenfranchisement are real evils to be rooted out and exposed.”
Marcia approaches filmmaking like a journalist would. “I interview folks and create short segments, but ideally my work is about people and their stories and having the audience figure out why they should even care about the person on the screen. This is what really motivates me. I will go almost anywhere with a camera, both 35mm and video in an attempt to raise real awareness and consciousness of people living on the fringe.” Marcia believes the power of images to stir us up is really extraordinary and worth all the words we can give them. “Whether we’re talking about the current genocide in Darfur or the sexual trafficking of small children in Thailand, the AIDS pandemic in Africa or the crippling poverty in developing countries and right here in our own back yard, there is the possibility for real change and my contribution will be with a camera,” she says.
In April of 2007, Marcia traveled to South Africa to shoot her most recent documentary, “Umoja”, a film about the power of music to unite groups of people regardless or language and cultural differences. She follows the gospel choir of New York’s famed Marble Collegiate Church on their first tour of Johannesburg, Soweto and Capetown.
After twenty years, Marcia continues to delight us with her work in front of the camera, but her heart lies squarely with the work she creates behind the lens.