Description

Synopsis

Born in central Pennsylvania, Markie Hancock was indoctrinated as a child to be a born-again Evangelical Christian. Although a fervent believer in her early twenties, Hancock began to experience some dissonance and doubt. BORN AGAIN chronicles Markie Hancock’s slow and painful break with her faith and her family as she experiences sexual discovery and explores the larger world. Upon returning home from several years in Berlin she recognizes that the split with her family is irreconcilable unless she returns to the faith and no longer lives her life as a lesbian. Through this personal exploration, we see a divided family, a divided nation, and a divided self who, despite the odds, emerges whole.

Director

Director

Markie Hancock

Markie Hancock attended the renowned Christian institution, Wheaton College and studied theology at Princeton Theological Seminary and at Freie University in Berlin. Eventually becoming disillusioned with religion, Hancock decided to become a filmmaker after attending the 1986 Berlin International Film Festival. Markie Hancock’s short documentaries include: 15/8 (1998) explores one composition, one rehearsal, and one performance of Andrew Hill’s complex and alluring jazz piece entitled 15/8 and Talkin’ Trash (2000), a hypnotic meditation on ambivalence and longing that transcends sexual and gender identity. Hancock’s documentary Exclusions & Awakenings: The Life of Maxine Greene (2001), examines the life and philosophy of New York intellectual Maxine Greene. Hancock had the support of the Open Society Institute, as the film deals with an individual’s struggle as a Jew, as a female intellectual and as a woman during the span of the Twentieth Century.