Mark Borchardt was born and raised in the city of Milwaukee, located in the state of Wisconsin. At the tender age of fourteen, he began his filmmaking journey by acquiring a super-8 camera from a garage sale for the modest sum of forty dollars. Following his three-year stint in the military, he pursued his passion for cinema at his local university.
In the mid-1990s, Mark penned and produced Halloween radio dramas, which were broadcast annually and garnered him a prestigious fellowship from the Milwaukee Art Futures Board. Despite facing obstacles in the film industry, he decided to create a short horror film titled Coven, which he spent the next three and a half years writing, filming, and editing.
The struggles and triumphs of Mark's filmmaking endeavors were documented in the 1999 film American Movie: The Making of Northwestern, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and won the Grand Jury Prize. Since then, Mark has made five appearances on the popular late-night talk show, Late Show with David Letterman, and has contributed to several films, books, and publications.
Mark's creative endeavors extend beyond the realm of film, as he has written numerous plays that have been featured and produced in various events, including the Village Playhouse's Original One Act Festival in Milwaukee and the Samuel French Series at their Los Angeles location. He is currently working on his lifelong project, Northwestern, and is set to begin production on a new feature film script in the fall of 2018, in addition to penning the sequel to his 1997 film, Coven.
