FILMMAKER BIO

MARIEL HANSSON FOLK (she/they) is a mixed Black-American director, writer, producer, documentarian, organizer, curator, radical optimist, eco-feminist, and soil punk. 

Born in Washington D.C., raised in the DMV, and now based between Berlin and rural Sweden, her previous lives and jobs all seemed random until she found filmmaking as her true calling in her early 30’s. It magically combined every skill and passion she’s ever had or hopes to acquire some day, with a form of communication and communal art making that she didn’t know she was desperately needing. 

Mariel’s first short film (On the Island, 2021, 11 minutes) was an autobiographical DIY no budget documentary and an exploration of personal and collective grieving within her own family and the greater Black community of Oak Bluffs, Martha’s Vineyard. It screened at the Massachusetts Independent Film Festival (’22), the Middlesex Film Festival (‘21), and the Women’s International Film Festival in Denmark(‘21). 

Mariel studied art history and sociology at The University of Michigan, digital media production at the Specs Howard School of Media Arts, received the certificate for Inclusive Curatorial Practices: Accessibility, Representation and Diversity from the NODE Center for Curatorial Studies, and moved to Berlin to study Creative Film Production at the Catalyst Institute for Creative Arts and Technology. For years she has pursued workshops and certifications for holding trauma-informed, more accessible, and more inclusive spaces through her studies in intimacy coordination, the healing arts and doula work.

Mariel is currently writing, producing, and directing several narrative projects and making documentary work focused on the intersections of climate justice, disability justice, public health, intimacy and consent. 

She is also currently founding COVAtv-–  a coalition of filmmakers advocating for disability justice and public health on sets and/or in their work, inspired by the DIVAtv mediamakers/ AIDS activists of the 80’s and 90’s. She is a member of the Brown Girls Doc Mafia, American Documentary Association, and Array Crew/Impact. She attended the European Film Market in Berlin ‘26 with the EFM Inclusion Initiative and Festival de Cannes ‘25 and 26’ with the American Pavilion Student Program where she interned in the programming/panels department. 

Mariel’s writing has been described as “fresh, and full of personality” by her latest lab rejection. 

Her work is part of her greater goal of seeking revenge against nihilism and respectability politics.