Odyssey & Muse

Marquette Jones is from Youngstown, Ohio, not far from where I grew up. She’s an alumna of NYU’s graduate film program, but before becoming a filmmaker, Marquette was a public interest attorney in Oakland, California. Her work includes her most recent film, Forgiving Chris Brown, along with Round on Both Sides, Tunk, Heroes Wanted and Streets 2 Suites. She has also produce many other projects from short films, to commercials and PSAs for the Women in Film program. When she is not busy writing, producing, or directing, Marquette indulges her obsession with color through her ever-growing nail polish collection. In this conversation we get into everything. When it comes to filmmaking, we learn her thoughts on grad school – the good and the bad, her strategy for submitting to film festivals – they are detailed, how she writes, directs and staffs up for her films, and some writing advice she received from Spike Lee himself. We talk about her winding path from law degree to a creative career, her advocacy for w