About Mark Brecke
Director, They Turned Our Desert Into Fire

Mark Brecke is a Filmmaker and Documentary Photographer. His work documents the stories of people victimized by war, ethnic conflict, and genocide, covering over ten years and three continents in some of the most troubled regions of the world including Cambodia, Rwanda, Kosovo, Sudan, West Bank, and Iraq.

He studied Cinema with Phil Green (apprentice of Ansel Adams and assistant to Dorothea Lange), and continued his studies at University of California, Berkeley with the found footage experimental filmmaker Craig Baldwin.

In 2004 Amnesty International selected his short documentary film "War as a Second Language" (2002) to be included in their permanent film archive. Screened both domestically and internationally, "War as a Second Language" is about U.S. foreign policy in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War.

In 2003 Mark worked as the photographer for a book project called "Letters to America". He traveled to five countries, including Iraq where he was an embedded photographer during the invasion. River Wood Books released "Letters to America" in June of 2005.

In September of 2004, Mark started photographing the refugee camps of Eastern Chad and traveled behind rebel lines in the Darfur region of Sudan, with the Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA). For the past two years, Mark has traveled the United States lecturing and presenting his Darfur photographs to over 100 different audiences including the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, UCLA School of Law, Brown University, the Fletcher School at Tufts University and the World Affairs Council, and has been featured on National Geographic News, Current TV, NPR, and "Democracy Now", In July of 2005, Mark was invited to Capitol Hill to give his Darfur presentation to members of Congress.

In March of 2006 the U.S. Senate selected ten of Mark's Darfur photographs to be hung in the Russell Rotunda of the U.S. Senate Building in Washington D.C.

Mark has contributed his Darfur photographs to the. U.S. Holocaust Museum / Google Earth's recently-launched interactive map about the Darfur crisis, and to the book Not On Our Watch (co authored by Don Cheadle and John Prendergast) Hyperion released Not On Our Watch April 2007 and his photographs are currently touring museums and galleries in a group multi media exhibit called "DarfurDarfur."

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More ways to get involved

Genocide Intervention - http://www.genocideintervention.net
Empowering individuals and communities with the tools to prevent and stop genocide.

Save Darfur - http://www.savedarfur.org
Media outreach, targeted coalition building and grassroots mobilization to pressure
policymakers and other decision-makers to help the people of Darfur

Amnesty International - http://www.amnesty.org
A worldwide movement campaigning for internationally recognized human rights.

Stand: A student Anti-Genocide Organization - http://www.standnow.org
STAND, a nationwide, student-led division of the Genocide Intervention Network, mobilizes high school and college-age young adults through more than 800 campus chapters.

Sudan Divestment Task Force - http://www.sudandivestment.org/home.asp
Coordinates grassroots activism and lobbying to divest funds from the most egregious, worst-offending companies without doing harm to innocent Sudanese civilians.

Relief Web - http://www.reliefweb.int
The global hub for time-critical humanitarian information on Complex Emergencies and Natural Disasters

Not on Our Watch - http://www.notonourwatchbook.com
Actor Don Cheadle and activist John Prendergast strive to educate and empower readers.

Sudan Reeves - http://www.sudanreeves.org
Research, Analysis, and Advocacy - Briefs and writings on Sudan by Eric Reeves

International Crisis Group - http://www.crisisgroup.org
Working to prevent and resolve deadly conflict worldwide

Human Rights Watch - http://www.hrw.org
Investigative group of professionals dedicated to defending Human Rights Worldwide.

United States Holocaust memorial Museum - http://blogs.ushmm.org/index.php/COC2
Stimulating leaders and citizens to confront hatred, prevent genocide, promote human dignity, and strengthen democracy.

Sand and Sorrow - http://www.sandandsorrow.org
Paul Freedman's film about Darfur.