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Marjorie Conrad (born October 1, 1988) is a French-American filmmaker and model. She is known for being the eleventh eliminated America's Next Top Model (Cycle 11), and for her narrative feature films Chemical Cut (2016) and Desire Path (2020).
Conrad was born in Marseille to French parents Didier Conrad, a graphic novel artist of Swiss origin, and Sophie Commenge, a graphic novel scenarist of partial Italian ancestry. When she was eight years old, the family left France and relocated to Los Angeles, California after her father began working on the film The Road to El Dorado (2000) with DreamWorks Studio. Conrad and her broth
Marjorie Conrad (born October 1, 1988) is a French-American filmmaker and model. She is known for being the eleventh eliminated America's Next Top Model (Cycle 11), and for her narrative feature films Chemical Cut (2016) and Desire Path (2020).
Conrad was born in Marseille to French parents Didier Conrad, a graphic novel artist of Swiss origin, and Sophie Commenge, a graphic novel scenarist of partial Italian ancestry. When she was eight years old, the family left France and relocated to Los Angeles, California after her father began working on the film The Road to El Dorado (2000) with DreamWorks Studio. Conrad and her brother did not learn English until beginning public schooling in California.
Conrad attended school in the Los Angeles Unified School District, and began pursuing filmmaking as a middle schooler. She then attended Cleveland High School and San Francisco State University, where she graduated summa cum laude with a degree in film production in 2011.
Post-Top Model, Conrad resumed her studies at San Francisco State University and signed with Look Model Agency from 2009–2011. Modeling credits included a cover and spreads in Fantasticsmag, opening a Marciano runway show, walking for the Parc 55 Hotel opening show, closing and a video shoot for the San Francisco Art Institute graduation show, several shoots and shows for diPietro Todd Salon, multiple shoots for Edo Salon, a shoot for Atelier Emmanuel, a trade show with Gina Khan Salon, in-store modeling for Neiman Marcus, and a video shoot for Macy's West and MAC Cosmetics. She has worked with San Francisco photographers Aubrey Trinnaman, Hideki Owa, Billy Winters, Tara Chumpelik, Christian Pollock, Tara Arrowood, Cody Rasmussen, RC Rivera, Jean-Baptiste Petispas, and Brittany McCall.
Her 2011 graduate thesis film Limehouse won the Audience Award at the Juried Previews for the SFSU 51st Film Finals, was selected to close the Film Finals screening, won Best Narrative at the Excelsior Short Film Festival, and was praised by Sundance Feature Film Program Manager Cullen Conly. The short narrative film focused on San Francisco and featured legendary transgender pioneer Vicki Marlane in a rare and classic rendition of Lisa Kirk's Limehouse Blues.
After graduating with honors in 2011, Conrad moved from San Francisco to Los Angeles and set out to write her first feature script while working as a receptionist at World of Wonder Productions. It was there that she met her future cast members, including the late Ian Coster (son of Days of Our Lives actor Nicolas Coster, also performing in the film), Michael Lucid, Deven Green, David Keeps, and Stephen Saban, co-founder of Details. She fully funded the film using her earnings from World of Wonder, teaming up with SFSU alums Barret Hacia (Producer) and Mackenzie Mathis (Cinematographer). Marjorie wore many hats for the project: writer, director, lead actor, executive producer, and editor.
Her surreal debut feature, titled Chemical Cut, world premiered at the top-tier 2016 Slamdance Film Festival as an Official Selection in the Narrative Competition. Marjorie was one of only two female directors accepted in the 2016 Narrative Feature lineup. In her dark comedy, "Irene, a 23-year-old artistic misfit, pursues a modeling career to escape her dead-end retail job but is quickly disillusioned by the cutthroat nature of the Los Angeles fashion world. Searching for identity and a kindred spirit while surrounded by competition, absurdity, and so many nude bras, Irene flounders until a mysterious woman's performance ignites her imagination." Programmer Marie Jamora explained, "Writer/Director/Editor/Lead Actress Marjorie Conrad developed the story from her own experience as a former model, and she shows us a world where mannequins are treated better than real women, verbal molestation is palpable, and the scariest predators of pretty girls are the other pretty girls.” Chemical Cut had a positive critical reception, including the following favorable reviews from Hammer To Nail, Film Colossus, Beyond Chron, The Film Stage, Eat Drink Films, and Slug Magazine. The following interviews with the cast and crew were conducted by Twitch Film, World of Wonder hosted by James St. James, Film Colossus, The Park Record, The Art of Monteque, Screen Prism, Serving Cinema, Filmmaker Magazine, and MovieMaker Magazine. Other local radio and television interviews were conducted by Entertainment Journal, Park City Television, KPCW Radio, KXRK 96 Radio, Attention Deficit, UNLV Rebel Yell, P3 Update, International Screenwriting Association, and Examiner. The film was singled out as a festival highlight by AMFM Magazine, Variety, Twitch Film, Hammer To Nail, and The Davis Clipper, and the festival trailer was initially released on Indiewire. Filmmaker Magazine called the film "beguiling" and "intriguing," Slug Magazine described it as "a beautifully wrought film of the often fraught search for identity" and argued "the film manages to deftly explore questions of identity and creativity—perhaps drawing from Conrad’s own experiences—through opulent shots, outrageous characters and an exquisite backdrop of heightened reality." While at the festival, Recreation Media secured the film's international rights. It screened at the ArcLight Hollywood on May 10, 2016 and the ArcLight Chicago on May 18, 2016 as part of the Slamdance Cinema Club. The film was nominated for the Indie Spirit Award and won the Female Eye Filmmaking Award at The New Hope Film Festival. It was an Official Selection at the 2016 Buffalo International Film Festival in the Domestic and ArtHouse Feature category. Marjorie was interviewed for BIFFX by actress Tilke Hill as part of a Women in Film panel with feature directors Stavroula Toska (Beneath The Olive Tree) and Victoria Negri (Gold Star). Chemical Cut was released on Amazon Prime Video and Marjorie Conrad's YouTube Channel.
Conrad's second feature film, Desire Path, premiered at the 2020 Mammoth Lakes Film Festival and won the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature. Notable cast include Otto von Schirach and Amy Deanna. Film critic, curator, and artist Nikola Gocić cited Desire Path as one of his cinematic favorites of 2020, an "uncompromising sophomore feature–a deliberately paced, relentlessly elliptical and formally adventurous de(con)struction of the vampire subgenre." Gocić subsequently praised the 2021 version of the film: "Marjorie Conrad’s grimly sensual mood piece–one of the finest experimental features I saw last year–gets a condensed, yet even more daring version which emphasizes the film’s ‘tactility’. And when I say ‘tactility’, I don’t refer to it only in its literal sense, but also as in ‘a half-remembered dream that gently touches your psyche before veiling it in uncanny ethereality'..." The 2021 version of Desire Path was released on Amazon Prime Video; both the 2020 and 2021 versions were released on Marjorie Conrad's YouTube channel.
Conrad's formally daring third feature, Body Issues, makes innovative use of body cam footage, a lack of visible human faces, and "an unreliable narrator as the only guide". It debuted at the 2023 Cine-Excess Film Festival in the UK, exploring "physical and familial alienation" central to the festival's theme. In his review, Nikola Gocić commends the film's bold, raw, and essayistic experimentation that "constantly keeps you guessing," describing the film as "a heavy dream in which you’re enveloped in darkness, and lost in a place you can’t recognize," its nightmarish atmosphere reminiscent of "Philippe Grandrieux and David Lynch (in the Inland Empire element)." The film was also programmed at the 2023 Bridge Film and Video Festival, the 2023 BizarroLand Film Festival, and the 2024 New Jersey Film Festival.
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