Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Adrian Marshall. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Adrian thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

In March of 2022 I had the opportunity to direct my third Spanish-language film, “With Sticks and Stones (Con palos y piedras)”, an endeavor intended to function as my thesis for my studies in the Film, Video, New Media and Animation program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. This particular film represented a significant step forward for me not just as a writer and director, but as a means of translating painful experiences from my past in both an interpretive and autobiographical sense.

On December 24th of 2017, while living in Tucson, Arizona, I was physically assaulted outside a bar by two strangers in an unprovoked attack. This act of violence fractured my jaw in three places, and the suspects fled the area soon after in a stolen vehicle. While they were never held accountable for what they did, I was not given an option; my life was forever altered that night, something I am reminded of every day for one reason or another. During that time, and perhaps in the years leading up to it, I had become quite angry with the world. I felt abandoned, misunderstood, and above all, judged for simply existing. It was around that time I first read “Invisible Man” by Ralph Ellison, and alongside that the writings of authors such as Franz Kafka, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Albert Camus. Their views not only spoke to me, but felt like mirrors expressing my inner, unspoken pain; something I knew I had to translate into the cinema I aspired to make.

My environment growing up, as informed by Mexican culture as the Southwest can be, had demonstrable prejudices against mixed individuals such as myself. I felt ashamed in my childhood to acknowledge my middle name, “Tizóc” — the namesake of an Aztec royal, and a sentimental film for my parents in the early years of their relationship. As I became intimately acquainted with postcolonialism, existentialism, art therapy, and film production in my undergraduate studies, I recognized the importance of speaking up for people like myself, my family, and those with trauma too frightened by the stigma of mental illness to share their perspectives. It was during my relocation to Chicago that I wrote the first draft of what would become “With Sticks and Stones”, and several drafts later, I had put together an ambitious existential horror that afforded me the opportunity to collaborate with old friends and new filmmakers as well as practical effects artists Adam Dougherty and Kristin Dalleske, whose work can be seen in such properties as “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” and “The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance”, respectively.

I am proud of the two films I made during my undergraduate studies as well as what they achieved, but I can say with some certainty that nothing I have done captures my intent as an artist and filmmaker in quite the same way as “With Sticks and Stones (Con palos y piedras)”.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Coming from a mixed ethnic background both Indigenous Mexican and European, I felt both enriched and alienated in my childhood by internal and external conflict.

Early exposure to cultures of the world and their food, customs and art separated me from my classmates as I explored my personal interests, while the obsessive compulsions of my mother, high expectations of my father and misguided prejudice of my peers manifested in undiagnosed sleep paralysis that, in hindsight, would inform my desire to create therapeutically through writing, music and art.

After taking up music and darkroom photography courses in high school, I became fascinated with the expression of mental illness through composition in writing, collage and photography; some time after graduation, several short lived musical endeavors and full time jobs, I enrolled at the Southwest University of Visual Arts in Tucson, Arizona to study animation and photography, where I first discovered the work of surrealist painters such as HR Giger and Zdzisław Beksinski, the psychological filmmaking of David Lynch and David Cronenberg, and the foundational principles of art and composition that I applied to a body of drawings and photography with sharp, angular perspective and high contrast between the light and the dark.

My fascination with the language of cinema prompted me to transfer during my Junior year to the University of Arizona’s Film and Television program, where I had the opportunity to explore my predisposition for surrealism, existentialism and cultural storytelling behind the camera as an aspiring writer, director and composer, earning a BA in Film Production in 2021 and shortly thereafter an MFA in Film, Video, New Media and Animation from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2023.

As for what separates my work as an artist, I believe, is the motivation behind every image I capture; I aspire to communicate stories of the marginalized, the forgotten, and the abandoned. As such, I seek to uncover deep cultural connections within my films, magnify the symbolism of personal narratives in my photography, and utilize my experiences with traditional art to emphasize a visual philosophy as organic as it is meaningful. I feel these characteristics of my creative persona are what collaborators are drawn to when they choose to work with me.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

The goal of my creative journey, above all else, is to provide a voice for the misunderstood and forgotten. During my hardest times, I felt as though no one was listening; it demonstrated for me the importance of compassion, and motivated me to learn more about my Indigenous Mexican heritage as well as other marginalized groups such as those struggling with prejudice, mental health, disability, poverty, and other harrowing realities of the world.

While my films could be described as horror, in a sense, my inspiration is reality both cruel and beautiful; I do not believe the two to be black and white, so I aspire to delineate the broader experiences of human beings in search of a more profound explanation for pain as well as pleasure.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Initially my academic career began with many false starts. I had pursued music, game development, and then animation before I discovered my passion for filmmaking; when I finally did, I realized that I was able to consolidate many of the skills I had acquired for my work, allowing me to immerse myself in each film from its conception to post production. That exploration, including the time I spent away from school working a number of various jobs, provided me with a deeper context for the kind of stories I had been eager to tell.

Today, many types of media are competing for the attention of audiences across the world, and as such, it is more difficult than ever to find funding for independent films like mine. I have begun another transition of sorts as a result, taking up studies in programming and exploring the viability of social work as a new inspiration in crafting stories that are as much about illuminating current day issues as they are a creative outlet for my own trials. I hope to discover new ways to approach my work, and in doing so, perhaps attract more eyes to what I am doing, whether it’s a film or something more interactive.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.adriantizocmarshall.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adriantizocmarshallfilm?igsh=ZXNnaG1sZWFkNmdt&utm_source=qr
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/adriantizocmarshall
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adriantizocmarshall?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@adriantizocmarshall6733

Image Credits

Cinematography by Mason Day, personal photograph by Sky Chen