Part–Time Storyteller. Full–Time Dreamer
Marian D. Cook is a Nicaraguan-American filmmaker and former journalist. In her time as a reporter, she covered beats from local news to federal healthcare legislation, and created a range of documentaries from plastic surgery to segregation in the church. She is a recipient of the Autry D. Greer Media Service Award and Catholic Press Award.
One year out from the completion of her Journalism program at Spring Hill College, she decided to go back to school, but this time to study film at USC's School of Cinematic Arts. The pivot was hardly a surprise-----she got bit by the film bug when she was gifted a camcorder in the fifth grade. In her formative years, she made Henry VIII historical reenactments for her history class and backyard zombie movies with her childhood best friend.
Now, she focuses on telling carefully wrought stories about the shared human experience through the lens of her own life, Latinidad, and femininity.
Her latest projects include Bad Hombrewood, a short documentary she produced, about Latinx representation in Hollywood, starring Phil Lord, Guillermo Del Toro, Lee Unkrich, Melissa Fumero, and a range of Latinx talent that demonstrate the beauty and diversity of the community. It won Best Student Documentary at the American Pavilion at the 2022 Cannes International Film Festival; was a nonfiction nominee at the 2023 Student Emmys; and has been selected for over 40 official film festivals across the globe including Santa Barbara and the Cleveland International Film Festival.
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She also produced Backlog, based on a true story, about one woman's fight to end the national rape kit
backlog. It was a Best Student Short Audience Award Winner at the Cleveland International Film Festival; an official selection of the American Pavilion's Emerging Filmmaker Showcase at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival; was a drama series winner at the 2024 Student Emmys; and won Best Women Student Filmmaker at the 29th DGA West Student Film Awards.
Marian also edited Renacer, a Latina's tumultuous journey post-abortion, which was a recipient of the The Annenberg Inclusion Initiative's AI2 Reproductive Rights Accelerator Award. She then finished off the year by editing Eclipse Chasers, a recipient of the Fox Fellowship Grant, which premiered in 2024.
For three incredible years, she worked at Stowe Story Labs, a film nonprofit dedicated to helping emerging screenwriters get their work made and seen, creatively growing alongside budding and established artists. Now, she is an Assistant Editor at the beloved and second longest running soap, Days of Our Lives.
In her free time, she curates playlists, globe-trots with her Super 8 and 35mm cameras, and scribbles verse on restaurant napkins.