Film. Video. Photo. Dance.
Mary Trunk is a Los Angeles–based multimedia artist whose work spans documentary film, dance cinema, experimental hybrids, and site-specific installations. Over the past three decades, she has developed an eclectic and deeply personal body of work grounded in an ongoing exploration of memory, storytelling, and the fluid nature of recollection and identity.
A frequent collaborator with photographer and cinematographer Paul Sanchez, Mary has created numerous documentaries, screendance works, experimental films, installations, and live performances that blend visual art, movement, music, and nonfiction storytelling into immersive cinematic experiences.
Her films examine a wide range of subjects, including the unraveling of her own family history, the choices women face in balancing motherhood and artistic life, the aging process of dancers, meditation practices in prisons, architectural influence, and the complexities of creativity itself. Through intimate and observational storytelling, her work explores how personal histories are shaped, interpreted, and transformed over time.
Mary’s experimental videos and screendance pieces focus on the subtle dynamics of space, gesture, movement, and human relationships. By reframing overlooked moments and details from everyday life, she reveals the emotional depth, contradictions, and quiet drama embedded within ordinary experience.
Her work has been presented internationally at film festivals, museums, universities, galleries, and outdoor venues. She earned a BA in Theater Arts with an emphasis in Dance from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and an MFA in Film from the San Francisco Art Institute.
In addition to her independent and collaborative artistic practice, Mary is a faculty member in the Film Department at Mount Saint Mary’s University in Los Angeles. There, she has produced and directed numerous films documenting the university’s history and legacy, including her recent feature-length documentary, Mount Saint Mary’s University: 100 Unstoppable Years, created in celebration of the institution’s centennial in 2025.
Mary has also taught film production, documentary filmmaking, dance, choreography, and experimental media at Loyola Marymount University, ArtCenter College of Design, Pasadena City College, and the San Francisco Art Institute.
Paul Sanchez has worked in the motion picture industry for more than 30 years, bringing a distinctive visual and collaborative approach to film, television, and performance-based media. His creative partnership with filmmaker and choreographer Mary Trunk began through composing original music and designing sets for her dance theatre company, Trunk Co. Since then, they have continued to collaborate on documentaries, screen dances, experimental films, installations, and live performances.
As a professional cinematographer and camera operator, Paul’s work spans more than 30 feature films and television productions, including Thunderbolts, Mrs. Doubtfire, Walk the Line, The Matrix Reloaded, Sideways, Scandal, Mad Men, and The Old Man.
Paul’s personal photography explores the everyday lives and cultural experiences of people around the world. His commercial work has taken him to destinations including China, Hungary, Thailand, Malaysia, and the Dominican Republic, expanding both his artistic perspective and documentary sensibility.
FESTIVALS/SCREENINGS
2026 Fargo Film Festival, Fargo, North Dakota
2025 The Itinerant Cinema of La Bete Rousse, Paulhauc, France
2024 Transient Visions: Festival of the Moving Image, New York
2024 Gjon Mili International Video Art Festival, Gjon Mili Museum, Albania
2024 Esto Es Para Esto Film Festival
2024 ALC Video Art Festival, Museum of Contemporary Art, Alicante, Spain
2023 New Film Underground, Los Angeles
2023 Eperimental Superstars, Serbia
2023 ELO(Kuva)KUU, Finland
2023 XPRMTL Film Festival, London
2023 Fisura, International Festival of Experimental Film, Mexico
2023 Short Circuit Film Festival
2023 Esto Es Para Esto - Exhibidora de Cine
2023 International Festival of Experimental Film & Video
2022 Justice on Trial Film Festival
2022 Engauge Experimental Film Festival
2022 Film Fest by Rogue Dancer
2022 Bridges International Film Festival
2022 Santa Cruz Film Festival
2022 Red Rose Film Festival
2022 The New Film Underground
2022 Les Instants Video
2022 Body Positive Film Festival
2022 Lane Doc Fest
2022 Fargo Film Festival
2022 Morehouse College Human Rights Film Festival
2022 BUEIFF Channel
2022 Maui Film Festival
2022 The Cut Film Series
2022 Third ACTion Film Festival
2022 Paradise Film Festival
2022 Experiments in Cinema
2022 XPRMNTL Anti-Festival
2022 Balkan Can Kino
2022 Esto Es Para Esto Film Festival
2021 Inqrvention
2021 Engauge Experimental Film Festival
2021 Cine@art Festival
2021 Experimental Superstars
2021 Bideodromo
2021 Festival Internacional de Cortometraje UVAQ
2021 Kinesthesia Film Festival
2021 Underneath the Floorboards
2020 Film Fest by Rogue Dancer
2019 UFVA Conference
2018 Fargo Film Festival
2018 Grrl Haus Cinema
2017 40 North Dance Film Festival
2014 Fargo Film Festival