Marie Tagbo
2021 Undergraduate Research Fund Awardee
Collaborative Arts Class of 2024
Raised in Saint Louis, Missouri, Marie Tagbo is an actor-writer-producer who lives in Manhattan, New York. She will graduate from NYU from a special multi-disciplinary major called Collaborative Arts, where she studies writing, acting, and creative producing. Marie has been in film acting since 2009 and starred in countless student films, commercials, and feature films. She has a YouTube, is the author of the book, “How I Became a Teen Actor,” and has dedicated her platform to encourage teens on how to enter the acting industry. Through NYU, she has created a variety of short films, interactive Zoom experiences and plays that focus on the black female experience. She is now independently producing a feature film and short docudrama on black women in private school.
PROJECT
Untitled Black Women Docu-Drama Film
The experience of racism and sexism in private schools actively hinders young women's education in a myriad of ways. Black women experience undue and added levels of discrimination on account of their race and their gender. This extends to girls in elite institutions, who are at a volatile time in their life. I interviewed eight young black women on their experience in private school. What I found were stories of strength, women who had tirelessly worked through private school to make a name of themselves, to succeed. This project is a short film: the first out of a series of short, casual films, showcasing the experiences of young black women. It will be a recreation or reenactment, “Fatal Attraction” style, cutting between their interviews, and scenes from these women’s private school experiences. Each episode ends with their thoughts on improvements for black women in these spaces, to give hope for the future. The goal is to engage and enlighten the audience with a powerful image about the effects of intersectionality even within higher education.
