I'm a documentary cinematographer and filmmaker, based in Melbourne. I'm 34, half Australian-half Finnish, and grew up travelling the world with my family. I'm lucky enough to get to travel pretty frequently, both with my work and for the pure joy of it. My main interest in travel is learning about new cultures -- people, history, food, ways of life that are different from what I know. I crave culture shock.

You can check out my stuff at Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/marleenaforward/

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I signed up to Couchsurfing over ten years ago and I've been lucky to meet some fantastic people through CS, both surfing and hosting. I'm here to make genuine connections and learn about new people and cultures; to me, this is not just a free hotel!

Interests

• arts
• culture
• literature
• photography
• documentaries
• film making
• politics
• podcasts
• music
• sports
• history
• travel
• food

Music, Movies, and Books

It's impossible to choose favourites, but here are a few I've loved that come to mind:

Books: Persuasion (Austen), In Patagonia (Chatwin), The BFG (Dahl), Of Mice and Men (Steinbeck), The Happy Prince (Wilde), Great Expectations (Dickens), One Hundred Years of Solitude (Marquez)

Films: A Separation, Force Majeure, Grizzly Man, Searching For Sugarman, On the Waterfront, Let the Right One In, Pan's Labyrinth, Sunset Blvd, Fargo, Vertigo, All About Eve, Blade Runner

Music: Pink Floyd, DD Dumbo, Rhye, Johnny Flynn, The Beatles, Djivan Gasparyan, David Bowie, Fleetwood Mac, London Grammar, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Miles Davis, Tinariwen

(And I'll add that I'm a total podcast addict, so always keen to swap recommendations)

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Worked as an extra on a TV series in Syria in 2010. Surreal experience!

Teach, Learn, Share

Teach:
Documentary filmmaking, photography, writing and editing, and handstands!

Learn:
I would love to learn your language -- lingual, cultural, personal.

Share:
Stories, recommendations, food, fun.

What I Can Share with Hosts

I'm interested in making genuine connections with my hosts, learning from them and offering them the chance to learn from me, if I have anything worth offering (I hope so!)

Apart from that, I enjoy sharing food and swapping stories and recommendations.

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cambodia, China, Croatia, Estonia, Fiji, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Italy, Laos, Lebanon, Malaysia, Montenegro, Morocco, Myanmar, Nepal, New Zealand, Norway, Papua New Guinea, Poland, Portugal, Russian Federation, Serbia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Syrian Arab Republic, Thailand, Timor-Leste (East Timor), Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Vatican City State, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

Australia

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