Jen Marlowe is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, author, playwright and human rights activist. Through film, writing, theatre and other artistic platforms, Jen seeks to share the resilience and courage of those who have been marginalized and oppressed and are choosing resistance with nonviolence, humanity and dignity.
Through more than a decade of world-spanning activism and peace work Jen has encountered repeatedly, individuals and communities struggling against oppression with unimaginable grace. Maintaining their dignity in the face of violence and mistreatment, these inspirational figures have allowed Jen to enter their lives and bring their stories to the larger stage.
From Sudan, where she made the films Darfur Diaries and Rebuilding Hope to Palestine/Israel, where she made the film One Family in Gaza and co-wrote the book The Hour of Sunlight, to the Kingdom of Bahrain, where she documented the Arab Spring, to death row here in the United States, Jen brings audiences footage and stories of heroic individuals she has met in some of the most devastated places on earth, and shares their struggle to be heard.
Jen’s 2015 film Witness Bahrain is an intimate, in depth portrayal of the Bahraini government’s violent repression of Bahrain’s Arab Spring. Her play ‘There Is A Field’, is about her friend Aseel Asleh, a 17-year old Palestinian citizen of Israel killed by police in October 2000. Based on interviews and primary sources collected over fourteen years, the play offers a uniquely personal lens for understanding inequality as the root of state violence and impunity.
Jen worked to prevent the execution of Troy Davis, an innocent man who was executed by the state of Georgia on September 21, 2011. Her third book, I Am Troy Davis, co-written with Martina Davis-Correia and with Troy Davis, was released in September 2013, two years after Troy’s death.
Jen has addressed hundreds of audiences and is uniquely skilled at bringing the human details of these stories to life whether the audience is new to the issue or deeply knowledgeable. Audience members come away with a new appreciation for what it means to stand in solidarity with those struggling for their human rights all over the globe.
Jen Marlowe is the founder of the production company Donkeysaddle Projects. Her writing has appeared in The Nation, Al Jazeera America, TomDispatch.com, yes!, Colorlines, +972 Magazine, The Progressive, Haaretz, Counterpunch, The Guardian, and the Seattle Times, among others. Jen has been the recipient of grants, residencies and fellowships from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, the Nation Institute Investigative Fund, the Dorot Foundation, Seattle’s Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs, Hedgebrook, and the Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace & Justice. She has appeared on Democracy Now!, C-SPAN-2, Reuters, NPR, and RussiaTV. Her films have appeared on Seattle’s KCTS 9, Current TV, and Halogen TV.