Marcia Kimpton: Exploring the World Through Film and Adventure
Updated: Dec 16, 2024
In this exclusive interview with Miami Living Magazine, we sit down with Marcia Kimpton—filmmaker, travel guru, author, and the daughter of Bill Kimpton, the visionary founder of Kimpton Hotels. With a lifetime of global adventures and storytelling under her belt, Marcia has launched her own app, Kimpton Travels and Films, where she combines her love for cinema and travel, offering a unique window into the cultures, stories, and hidden gems she’s discovered in over 40 countries. Known for her award-winning films, Marcia continues to push boundaries—whether through her new late-night travel show, Bright Lights Late Nights, her organized group retreats to healing destinations such as Bhutan and Hawaii, or her inspiring book Escaping the Hollywood Bardo. Join us as we dive into her world, where passion for travel, creativity, and personal transformation intersect.
Miami Living (ML): Marcia, it's such a pleasure to sit down with you today! You've had such an exciting and varied journey - from filmmaking to traveling the world, and now launching your app, Kimpton Travels and Films. To start off, we’d love to hear: What first sparked your passion for travel, and how did that early curiosity evolve into the incredible career and adventures you’ve had so far?
When I was younger my family took a lot of American history trips to all the great historical battles sites and museums. Then when I was 18 years old it was my first trip to Europe as a graduation present, and that’s when Pandora's box was opened. I knew for the rest of my life I would travel the world because of the excitement from learning from different cultures. I come from a divorced family and both sets of parents traveled all the time (mostly to Europe) and I was the first child in the family that first traveled to Africa and then Asia. I must add I do regret not saving the hotel keys from all these hotels because I have been to so many.
ML: Your father, Bill Kimpton, founded one of the most prestigious hotel chains in the world. How did his approach to hospitality shape your own journey, both personally and professionally?
I remember growing up and all the hotels had white walls with generic paintings until I went to Europe at 18, I saw exactly what inspired my father to change the hotel industry. When he was in his 20’s he took a motorcycle across Europe and he never forgot how each little family-owned hotel was so unique and beautiful, so the dream was set then in his head. He would design a beautiful hotel room, at a reasonable price, which didn’t exist until he created Kimpton Hotels in 1981. If you went to big cities back then in the US you could find a few unique hotels but growing up it was generic and quite ugly almost everywhere in the USA. Once my dad started these hotels it was truly my mission to find a cool place where I went in the world, and it was years later that I realized I can’t stay in generic hotel rooms. Sure, everyone loves luxury, but I loved watching my dad create unique hotel properties. I realized how much the atmosphere of your environment traveling really affects your trip. In my app I have been fortunate to travel to the top hotels. I also try to find those hidden gems. The Luxe Hotel in Ubud, Bali would be my first pick because it reminded me of a smaller Kimpton Hotel. In regards to my profession, my father inspired me to think so big. Anything was possible, so traveling the world and finding the greatest artists to talk to with a small film crew for the late night show Bright Lights Late Nights (now on my app) was something that I knew I could do. I took a film crew post Covid 2021, when no one was traveling, to Turkey, Greece, Portugal, France and South Africa because I would not let the fear of flying and traveling get in the way. It was glorious because no one was traveling and everywhere we went was empty. A year later we were venturing to Bhutan, Morocco, Bali, India, Nepal, Uganda and New Zealand all in less than 4 months because every country is interesting to me, as long as it is safe! For my father he always saw the US have many Kimpton Hotels but truthfully I don’t know if he saw the world? He unfortunately passed at 65 years old and there were only 40 hotels then, and now the hotels are around the world!
ML: Your new app, Kimpton Travels and Films, combines your love for travel and filmmaking. Can you share a moment from your travels that deeply impacted you, perhaps an experience or a story from one of the 40 countries you’ve visited that still lingers in your heart today?
This is such a hard question to answer but I will try to be brief since there are so many experiences that impacted me deeply. There is this temple named Wat Chedi Luang in Chiang Mai, Thailand that I went to in 2000, and when I stood there in Northern Thailand, I felt this tremendous peaceful energy. I said to myself “I hope I film here one day.” 16 years later I was filming my movie “Bardo Blues” in one of my most favorite cities in the world with amazing Thai people right in front of this temple. It felt surreal. The other life changing experience I must include is when I went to Bhutan for the first time after seeing the movie “Travelers and Magicians” and I had a panic attack (which is very uncommon for me,) but we left Bangkok and picked up passengers in Calcutta, but they kept the plane on the runway for an hour. The pilot said they were waiting for the weather to clear in the Himalayan mountains.I was a single mother without my daughter, traveling alone on what I came to find is a plane and a country without flight radar. They only flew by sight, and I started to sweat like I was in a sauna. I thought, "what if my daughter never sees me again?!" This was 2003 when very few tourists traveled there. Bhutan was so remote and only opened its borders to tourists in 1974. So, I got up and looked for a local since it was all white tourists and there was one Bhutanese person. I introduced myself and told him how nervous I was, and I asked him if I was safe to fly in or should I get off. He said he knew the pilots. He told me they were friends. I looked at him and realized he was the lead actor in “Travelers and Magicians” which had inspired me to come, and I asked him and he just smiled. I flew in safely, although it’s known to be the scariest descent and most difficult landing in the world. The actor, Tshewang Dendup, took me around his beautiful, sacred country. We met romantically in Paris a few months later and we are still friends today. I would say Bhutan is my favorite country in the world because there is nothing like a country who is fully Buddhist whose mission is to bring you happiness and peace.
ML: In your book Escaping the Hollywood Bardo, you’ve set out to inspire others to never give up on their dreams and to pursue what they love at all costs. Can you touch upon this theme a bit more, and how this mindset evolved over the years?
I knew at 12 years old exactly what I wanted to do because I had a vision. I loved the “Midnight Special” rock n’ roll show, Dick Clark and Johnny Carson late night show, so I saw it vividly at such a young age that I was going to host a rock n’ roll interview show. Sure enough I created this show called “The Rock n’ Roll Evening News” at 24 years in Los Angeles where the Soho House is now. I had the best view and office. Dreams come true so fast... Without going into the nightmare details that happened in waking up to Hollywood and all the deceit, lies and lack of support for women (which is changing today,) it took me another 14 years to realize the dream with my San Francisco “Live from the Starlight Room” late night show. It was pulled off the air 14 weeks later and 24 years later I filmed more of an artist, music, world culture show out of South Africa in March 2024 called “Bright Lights Late Nights.” The show changed focus because all I want to do is help great unknown artists become known in the world because I struggled so much for my art to get seen. It was only later that I realized I could be a film director because women film directors are so rare, and you have to have so much confidence to believe in your vision in order to just make a film.
ML: Having authored a book that touches on themes of mental health and healing, how has your own personal healing journey influenced the retreats you organize in places like Hawaii, Lake Tahoe, and Bhutan? What can travelers expect to experience in these transformative retreats?
I used to suffer from years of depression, like my father and brother, and I self-medicated with wine and pot, but once I found hot yoga it changed my life. I have been doing yoga for the last 30 years, usually 2-4 times per week. This year I’ve been living in Hawaii every day so each retreat we will have yoga. I have been doing weekly acupuncture for 30 years too, so my hope is that each retreat has this along with hiking, swimming in the ocean and/or lake, meditation, plus organic food. I plan on helping others with what I have learned with all the religious classes I audited over 5 years at the Pacific School of Religion and all the spiritual healers I have visited around the world. I plan on bringing something unique with these seminars that I want to teach at the retreats. The retreat centers I have chosen only allow 8-10 people so I want it small and intimate, and if we are lucky, we will have real transformation in a short period of time. This is the intention with Kimpton’s Kosmos retreats.
ML: You’ve made it your mission in the film industry to create more opportunities for women, both on set and off. As a prolific woman in this lifetime yourself, what are some of the biggest challenges you've encountered in your journey, and how do you envision changing the paradigm for women in the future?
Seriously this is the biggest challenge I faced today because I have pretty much had the same film crew for the last 12 years, and we work together in amazing ways. There are only 2 women on the crew and usually 8-10 men, but I would like that to change on my next film if I get the budget I dream. The only way this will change is by women helping women. Not one woman helped me along the way, but I had the most fortuitous opportunity two weeks ago when I ran into Sherry Lansing at the Bel-Air Hotel and ran up to her to thank her for all the advancements she made for women in film. There is no woman that ran more film studios and green-lit more films than Sherry. She watched my movie “Bardo Blues" because I asked her to! No one does this in their busy lives but I believe she saw how sincere I was in thanking her, so she watched it, to my surprise! Then she sent me an email with the most rave review ever. I cried when I read it. I am going to frame it. It changed my life because I never gave up on my dream to make artistic films and like I said I truly didn’t think I could do it, but I did it! I opened my computer that morning and there was an email from the woman who saw so many films in the entertainment business and she loved my film. Dreams do come true because that was a dream happening before my eyes that I wished for years.
ML: You’ve been to so many places, experienced countless cultures, and encountered diverse ways of life. If you had to choose one country that completely shifted your perspective on life, which one would it be, and why?
Bhutan for its peace. It is fully Buddhist, and you feel the prayers happening more than once per day in the air you breathe. It emanates everywhere, and Tigers Nest is truly the most stunning temple in the world that you have to climb to 9600 feet to get to, but it’s worth the trek. I love the Bhutanese people, the culture, the national dress, and the unique architecture. I would not advise going there for the food. It is not a culinary destination, but everything else is so amazing you really don’t care if one thing is missing.
ML: As a storyteller at heart, you’re constantly creating—whether it's through film, writing, or travel experiences. What’s next for you? Can you give us a sneak peek into your future?
Next is the screenplay I hope to sell and thus direct that I wrote called “Tanzan”. I wrote it when I was on a safari in Tanzania at truly the most luxurious magical safari lodge in the world called Singita. The story is a beautiful bi-racial love story which highlights today’s human-elephant conflict. I want to change the paradigm of filmmaking where every film gives back the issue I write about in the film. Proceeds of the profits for “Bardo Blues” will go to OneMind.org to find a cure to mental illness. With “Tanzan,” the profits will go to helping conserve animals in Africa since they are at risk, and helping the townspeople that have conflicts with the elephants coming into their town. Without giving the story away, there is a solution to every problem and I found out while on safari that this problem exists, and how they need more money to solve the problem. In raising the money to produce the film I am currently associated with a non-profit for the tax deduction, plus the lead actors (or shall I say movie stars) that we are approaching have non-profits in Africa, so our hope is to give back to those non-profits. It’s a win-win when the audience buys a ticket or streams the movie knowing that a lot of the money goes to help others. They feel good about their purchase. I hope my app becomes a streaming platform for movies that gives back and helps others. With this new world we are creating, I envision making it both sustainable and better.
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Photo Credit
Photography: Jonny Marlow
Hair/Makeup: Kurumi Schulz for MAC cosmetics
Styling: Anna Schilling