Mark N. Hopkins

Mark N. Hopkins is an English-American filmmaker, who is best known for his award-winning film Living in Emergency: Stories of Doctors Without Borders, the first uncensored look at Médecins Sans Frontières.

After completing High School in the UK, Mark attended Georgetown University where he majored in Philosophy. During this time he spent 8 months in Vietnam studying History and teaching English at the University of Hanoi.

Mark’s film career began as an assistant to New York-based producer Scott Rudin, working on such films as; The Truman Show, A Civil Action, Bringing Out The Dead, Angela’s Ashes, Sleepy Hollow, Wonder Boys, and Shaft. He left to start an independent production company, with the aim of focusing on non-fiction storytelling.

In 2001 Mark began working with documentary director George Butler, helping to develop and produce his films. The association began on the award-winning documentary The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition, followed by Roving Mars, and included a series of shorts directed by Mark for Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment. He later went on to produce George Butler’s critically acclaimed film Going Upriver: the Long War of John Kerry.

Trivia

Mark was born in Puerto Rico and grew up predominantly in Kenya. He lived in Italy for 8 years as a child and is fluent in Italian.

He is the great grandson of Abraham Block, one of the best-known Kenya pioneers and the founder of Block Hotels.

Of note, his brother Jeremy is a rising star within UNICEF and his other brother Sam is a Nairobi-based artist who together with Alex Nikolic, Lukas Pusch, Julius Mwelu and Fred Otieno established Slum TV, a grassroots media collective working with young people in Nairobi.

Two of his cousins Jason Dunford and David Dunford are swimmers who swam for Kenya at the 2008 Summer Olympics in [[Beijin

Mark's father, David N. Hopkins, is a well-known international agronomist, and the family moved between countries while Mark was growing up.

The family 'belongs' to the White minority in Kenya.