2015 ICF World Championships Slalom
 
1
2
3
K1M
CZ J. PRSKAVEC
PL M. POLACZYK
US M. SMOLEN
K1W
CZ K. KUDEJOVA
DE R. FUNK
DE M. PFEIFER
C1M
GB D. FLORENCE
SI B. SAVSEK
GB R. WESTLEY
C1W
AU J. FOX
CZ K. HOSKOVA
ES N. VILARRUBLA
C2
DE ANTON/BENZIEN
FR PICCO/BISO
FR KLAUSS/PECHE

Canoe Sprint

A life outside training III. To the movies with Jenna Marks.

canoe kayak sprint jenna marks canada competition banook club film making sportscene icf interview

Maria Halavrezos | Sportscene - Jenna Marks is a 23-year old canoeist and artist from Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. She paddles for the Banook Canoe Club on Lake Banook and has won multiple gold medals in canoeing representing her club, her province and her country. Jenna recently graduated from NSCAD (Nova Scotia College of Art and Design) in Halifax, Nova Scotia majoring in filmmaking.

Jenna sees paddling as an opportunity that has given her a unique skill-set which she has successfully applied to her aspirations for making films, and not just the obvious “commitment” and “dedication”. “It helps that I’m one of few women that can carry the heavy lights and camera equipment. It is surprising how hard making a film is on the body, and my fitness definitely gives me an edge”.

For a long time, Jenna saw herself as one day becoming a musician, but soon found the time constraints with training to affect her rehearsals. “When I got to high school I found I didn’t have time (mostly because of paddling) to attend all the choir camps and prestigious bands like my other musical friends. However, I started to realize that not everyone was as interested in art as I was. Doesn’t everyone sit in their living room painting until the wee hours of the morning? I started to realize that art was something that I could thrive in”. This realization prompted Marks to apply to NSCAD, and before long she became drawn to media arts, allowing her to combine many art forms, including music.

canoe kayak sprint jenna marks canada competition banook club film making sportscene icf interview

Filmmaking has given Jenna the opportunity to learn new skills and new stories. Most of all, perhaps, it has allowed for self-discovery. “I have been introduced to scuba diving, lobster fishing and all the wondrous shipwrecks off Nova Scotia’s coast. I’ve learned about World War I and II, the Halifax Explosion, diverse Indigenous cultures and my own family history. Through it all I would say I’ve learned the most about myself and how my only limits, anyone’s limits, are the ones they put on themselves”.

Marks gathers much of her inspiration from her own life and the history of the places and people that surround her. “I love history and I’m a passionate person; a bit of a romantic, so when I can connect something in history to the way my life is today I get the chills. What Happened to Esther is an animation about a midwife from Africville who died in the Halifax Explosion. It was an exciting scavenger hunt for history and I truly fell in love with the long-deceased Esther Roan.

It is hard to say what my favorite film is that I’ve made but What Happened to Esther, was my most ambitious film to date. I learned so much about animation and the surprising thrills of research. I also had an amazingly awesome time making all the music and got the chance to fall in love with singing again”. What Happened to Esther was screened at the Atlantic Film Festival in September 2013.

Marks describes her life up until now as a “balancing act” between the arts and paddling. “As a recent graduate, I can feel a shift in my priorities and I would say that paddling is slowly becoming more of the hobby between the two”.

This past summer Jenna was selected for an internship under the National Film Board of Canada and has been working on her upcoming film in Montreal, Quebec depicting the intersections and dealings with life as an artist versus life as an athlete.