Jelly Side Down

Marcus Badibanga is a California based filmmaker with a BA in Cinema & Digital Media from UC Davis. As a black kid growing up in a lower-class household, he had to work hard to become the first in the family of his generation to graduate college. Seeing others around him with so many more available resources to fund and create projects only pushed him to work harder and bring his visions to life. His passion for storytelling began at an early age, drawing comic books in elementary school. Soon after, he found an interest in animation, which ultimately led to live-action filmmaking. By his junior year in high school, he made his first stand-alone short film, which gained him acceptance in NYU's TISCH School of the Arts (although he would end up deciding to attend UC Davis). As a filmmaker, Marcus is always looking for ways to push boundaries and tell his stories in a new and unique way. He feels inspired by the works of filmmakers such as Michael Haneke, Steve McQueen, Angela Schanelec, Yorgos Lanthimos, Lynne Ramsay, and Denis Villenueve, to name a few.