Mark Borchardt was born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He started making films at the age of fourteen with a super-8 camera that he bought from a garage sale for $40. After serving three years in the military he continued his cinematic endeavors at the local university. In the mid-nineties he wrote and produced Halloween radio dramas which were broadcast annually and won a fellowship from the Milwaukee Art Futures Board. Getting nowhere fast on the film front he decided to make a short horror film entitled, Coven (2000). He spent the next three and a half years writing, shooting and editing a troublesome project. This struggle was documented in _American Movie: The Making of Northwestern (1999)_, which was picked up by Sony Classics and won the Grand Jury Prize at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival. Since then Mark has made five appearances on Late Show with David Letterman (1993) and has appeared in several movies including _One, The (2001/I)_ with Jet Li and The Tunnel (2001) with Lloyd Kaufman. He has contributed to the forthcoming book, "The Independent Film Experience" and is beginning to get his short stories published in magazines. Currently he is working on his lifelong film, "Northwestern", which will be out in 2004.