Joshua Marston

Born 1968, Southern California. He studied at Berkeley and worked for “Life” magazine and ABC News during the years 1990/91 before moving to Prague, where he taught English. He took up studies in politics in Chicago and then film at New York University Tisch School. He has directed a number of award-winning shorts, including: BUS TO QUEENS (1999), VOICE OF AN ANGEL (2000), TRIFECTA (2001). MARIA FULL OF GRACE marks his feature film debut.

Director’s statement

“I began to really think about Maria, and the decision she makes. There are over a billion people on the planet that are living on a dollar a day or less; they’re not all drug mules. So the question poses itself: what does cause a person who is in desperate straits to become a drug mule? Well, there are as many answers as there are people who do it. […] I think there are probably certain universals of a 17 year old’s life that cut across culture and economics. That was one of the aspects that made the film personal for me, because it is about someone trying to figure out who she is and her place in the world. It’s about Maria not being satisfied with where she is; she’s looking and yearning for something else, even if she can’t define or articulate it. From that developed a script that was less and less about a drug mule, and more and more about a young woman trying to break out and kick against a world that seemed to be pressing in on her, in order to achieve something more”.