Havana Marking is a British producer and director of documentary films. She is best known for the 2009 film Afghan Star which won the Audience Award at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival

Sundance Film Festival

The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...

.

Marking was born in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 and moved to the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 as a child. Her father was a professor at the University of Washington

University of Washington

University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...

 and her mother was one of the first female television directors in the UK. After returning to England, Marking worked as a TV researcher and then produced and directed several short films.

She released her first full-length documentary in 2007, The Crippendales, which follows the lives of disabled male strippers. The same year she began filming Afghan Star in Kabul

Kabul

Kabul , spelt Caubul in some classic literatures, is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. It is also the capital of the Kabul Province, located in the eastern section of Afghanistan...

, Afghanistan

Afghanistan

Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...

. Focusing on four contestants who are competing in a TV musical reality programme, Afghan Star was critically successful and won several awards at the 2009 Sundance Festival. Marking is currently at work on a documentary about Setara Hussainzada, a contestant on Afghan Star who received death threats for dancing on the programme.

Filmography

Year	Film	Notes
2005	What Would Jesus Drive?	Producer
	The F Word	Producer
	The Great Relativity Show
2007	The Crippendales
2009	Afghan Star	Winner, Best Director and Audience Award at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...

External links

• Havana Marking on IMDB
• Havana Marking on Sundance.org