Joy is a Philadelphia-based filmmaker who makes street fables: grounded social dramas infused with surreal, mystical, and dreamlike elements that reveal the invisible forces shaping our choices. Her stories center outsiders, visionaries, and radical souls pushed to the edge of meaning, where moral pressure turns everyday life into myth.
She has directed and produced several short films internationally in India, France, and the United States. Her first feature, I AM THAT, won Best New Mexico Feature Film at the Santa Fe International Film Festival and is available in the US and the UK on platforms like Amazon Prime, Tubi, and DirecTV.
Before filmmaking, Joy had an extensive background in theater, adapting and directing works like Siddhartha and A Brave New World for the stage. She earned a degree in Economics from the University of Washington in Seattle before relocating to Philadelphia.
In 2007, Joy began experimenting with screenwriting and directing, discovering an unexpected passion for every stage of filmmaking—from writing and financing to producing, directing, and editing. She has independently raised funding for all of her films by co-owning a production company specializing in Ashtanga yoga, through which she has produced video courses, world tours, and five books.
Joy thrives on deep collaboration, working with the same designers and actors across multiple films to cultivate a strong creative shorthand. Her brother, Mitch Marzec, has composed the music for all of her films.
Joy’s fourth feature film, Dream of the Holy Fool, is a social drama with a mystical rupture.
Over one charged day on a divided Philadelphia block, an uninvited wandering holy fool threads between neighbors split by a toxic plant and a looming EPA decision, her unsettling presence pushing a brewing riot toward an unexpected reckoning.
