Frederick Marx ~ Warrior Films

“Life itself initiates. We simply need to walk with a young person - to be there with them when life starts pounding them, and to support them in teasing out the lessons that the pounding brings.” ~ Frederick Marx

In this interview Israh connects with film-maker and founder of Warrior Films, Frederick Marx. Frederick developed a fascination from a young age, after the loss of his own father, about what it means to become mature as a man. He shares a little about his journey of inquiry into initiation, rites of passage and maturity for young men - exploring the subject up close through his film making.

Frederick speaks about what maturity means for him, shares some of his own rite of passage experiences, and speaks about the work he is witnessing in the field of rites of passage for young men.

Together Israh and Frederick explore the meaning of mentorship, the role of gender identity in rite of passage work, the role of ceremony and the critical importance of incorporation.

“I always challenge leaders ‘who are you mentoring? Who’s mentoring you?’ Most of the leaders I speak to have a few people they are offering mentorship to, but do not themselves have mentors. It sets them up for burnout and they aren’t modelling what's powerful about mentorship.” ~ Frederick Marx

Frederick Marx is an internationally acclaimed, Oscar and Emmy nominated director/writer with 40 years in the film business. He was named a Chicago Tribune Artist of the Year, a Guggenheim Fellow, and a recipient of a Robert F. Kennedy Special Achievement Award. His film HOOP DREAMS played in hundreds of theatres nationwide after winning the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival and was the first documentary ever chosen to close the New York Film Festival. It is one of the highest grossing non-musical documentaries in United States history.

HOOP DREAMS (1994) is the film that first interested Marx in the welfare of teenage boys. BOYS TO MEN? (2004) distributed by Media Education Foundation takes that as its central theme. RITES OF PASSAGE: MENTORING THE FUTURE is the culmination, offering solutions. Three of Marx’s films premiered at the New York Film Festival. His films are distributed throughout the web, on Amazon, and elsewhere. 

Having dedicated his life to the making and promotion of independent films, Marx, a true maverick in the increasingly commercialized world of “independent cinema,” continues to provide a voice of artistic and social integrity. He repeatedly returns to work with disadvantaged and misunderstood communities: people of color, abused children, the working poor, welfare recipients, prisoners, the elderly, and “at risk” youth. He brings a passion for appreciating multiculturalism and an urgent empathy for the sufferings of the disadvantaged to every subject he tackles. As his mission statement indicates (“Bearing witness, creating change”), his is a voice strong and clear, and profoundly human.