Murder in a Nutshell: The Frances Glessner Lee Story

I'm more than a little thrilled to announce that we are finished with our independent documentary film Murder in a Nutshell: The Frances Glessner Lee Story - a follow up to our other documentary film on the Nutshell Studies - Of Dolls & Murder. 

True, you never know when you are done-done with a film.  But for now, we are done. Unless of course we get some more funding. That would change everything! There is so much more that we could do to make this documentary film amazing. 

Although, I must say, Frances Glessner Lee's story is pretty amazing already.

Inside the not so glamorous world of post production on Murder in a Nutshell

Over the years, it just got less and less glamorous! But we never tired of the story. Not once.

Editor John Kurtis Dehn works hard while I take photos

Robin Barnes from Kitchen - one of Frances G. Lee's Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death

Filmmakers John Kurtis Dehn and Susan Marks from inside a Nutshell

Why did she bake a cake before killing herself?

Show Up Every Day

Just for fun Laurel from the Yoga Garden and I experimented with our iphones to create this video of her being awesome.

The iphone wound up being pretty instrumental to my new documentary on the Nutshell Studies. I was able to get angles in the dollhouses previously unseen by traditional cameras.

Anyway, please enjoy a little yoga inspiration from the guru who doesn't want to be known as a guru - Laurel Van Matre of the Yoga Garden in NE Minneapolis.

Frances Glessner Lee screenplay quarterfinals in Nicholl!

Great news!  My screenplay on Frances Glessner Lee advanced to the Quarterfinal Round of the 2015 Academy Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting!  7,442 scripts were entered and only 375 entries made it to this round.

Fingers crossed for the final round! 

(UPDATE: My script did make it to the Semifinals!!! It made it into the top 50 was sold to HBO and Guillermo del Toro)

 Here's a bit more about my writing and indie filmmaking:

Writer Susan Marks with one of the Nutshell Study of Unexplained Death

Susan Marks is screenwriter, author and documentary filmmaker.

Her recent documentary film, Of Dolls & Murder, about dollhouse crime scenes, features legendary filmmaker John Waters as narrator. Her screenplay, Finding Poppy Pepperdine was a quarter-finalist in the 2013 Academy Nicholl Fellowship competition. 

Susan's current projects include 2015 Academy Nicholl Fellowship quarterfinal screenplay, Dollhouse of Death about Frances Glessner Lee.  Susan made a documentary film, Murder in a Nutshell - also about Frances.

Susan also recently wrote a modern Southern Gothic tale in a new TV pilot, Perfect South.

Susan's past projects include the book Finding Betty Crocker (Simon & Schuster 2005) and documentary film, The Betty Mystique. Susan also wrote the book In the Mood for Munsingwear and made the documentary, Inside the Speakeasy Dollhouse.

Susan is a two-time recipient of the Jerome Foundation filmmaking grant,  a McKnight fellow and an Upper Midwest Regional Emmy winner.

Frances Glessner Lee documentary update

We're  back in the audio suite again - recording with our new scratch narrator for our documentary film on Frances Glessner Lee - Murder in a Nutshell.

It's always fun to hear my words come alive with a professional narrator. We feel so lucky to be telling Frances' story. And of course, the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death are endlessly fascinating.