Write for your fights
Welcome to my portfolio showcasing narratives that challenge the status quo and inspire change. Explore my award-winning works and creative voice.
My Portfolio
Feature Screenplays
DÍA DE LAS CARPAS (Kids’ adventure) - A Boy Scout and a bully form an unlikely alliance to help their undocumented neighbor reunite with her family, but they don’t know she has a magical secret that will change their lives forever. *Winner of the AGBO/Russo Brothers Development Grant, Screencraft Family Film Finalist and Screencraft Action & Adventure Finalist*
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FRACTAL WORLD (Historical math biopic) - A Holocaust survivor, all too aware of minorities being scapegoated during economic crises, fights to use his creation of fractal geometry to prevent the 2008 financial crash. Based on the true story of Benoit Mandelbrot. *Winner of the Alfred P. Sloan Science Writing Tuition Award*
AT LEAST I HAD SEX THIS YEAR (Coming-of-age dark comedy) - When an idealistic but alienated Berkeley student falls in love with a nihilistic Oakland townie, she risks losing her bright future, her only friend and maybe even her sanity.
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HOUSE OF MAGDALENE (Horror/psychological thriller) - A depressed teacher takes a job at a school for troubled girls in California wine country, but when she realizes that it’s a brothel for tech millionaires, will she find the strength to save the girls…and herself?
TV Screenplays
SATSUMA (hour-long historical drama pilot) - A banished samurai warlord in 1850's Japan seeks power to enact an unusual strategy: incorporate invading Americans into the empire on friendly terms so that his people aren't colonized.
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KOREATOWN LEGAL AID (half-hour comedy pilot) - An apathetic “indoor gay” plans to quit his low-paying non-profit job, but when his boss is arrested for embezzlement, will he step up to be the new leader for his community, or will he also fall victim to his capitalist wet dreams?
Short Stories
SAINT LOSER - Based on the true story of when I got arrested at the age of 10 in Saint Louis. Fun all around!
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Short Films
DIA DE LAS CARPAS (Kids' adventure short, 2019) - An undocumented girl transforms into a mermaid and evades ICE with the help of her neighbors. *Winner of the DGA Student Director award and featured in the CAA Moebius Showcase*
Watch the DGA Award-winning short now!
About Me
Marina received an MFA in Screenwriting in 2019 from the AFI Conservatory and was voted to give the commencement speech. Her short film about an undocumented girl who transforms into a mermaid won a DGA Award and received a feature development grant from AGBO, the Russo Brothers' production company. She also won an Alfred P. Sloan grant for her script about the father of fractal geometry.
Marina has worked in TV Research, international film production, for the Census at the height of the pandemic, at an online stiletto-of-the-month club and at a housing non-profit during the mortgage crisis. She has a Sociology M.A. from the University of Chicago and a B.A. in City Planning from UC-Berkeley. She was born in Berkeley and grew up in St. Louis.