Alumni Profile: Jeremy Levine '06
Park Scholar Andrew Zivic (a class of 2009 journalism major from Coraopolis, Pennsylvania) checks in with Park scholar alumnus and documentary filmmaker Jeremy Levine ’06.
Since graduating from Ithaca College in 2006, Park Scholar and Department of Television-Radio Alumnus Jeremy Levine has won numerous awards for his documentary filmmaking, including a grant from the Sundance Documentary Fund for his upcoming documentary, Good Fortune.
The film, about the negative effects of three foreign aid projects, is in the final cut stage. Levine said, “With Good Fortune, we’ve gotten a lot of positive responses from industry reps and filmmakers, but the best ones have come from our test audiences where people say it’s made them think about foreign aid in a completely new light.”
On top of receiving the grant from Sundance, Levine and his partner Landon Van Soest were flown out to Utah with other Sundance Institute Fellows for a weeklong workshop. The experience enabled them to experiment with composers and Levine felt the week helped push the film to the next level.
Levine and Van Soest set up Transient Pictures in Brooklyn, NY in 2006. Since then they have been doing professional documentary work and have received loads of acclaim.
Levine hopes his films help change the way people look at important societal issues: “I like to look at films as amazing resources to move people and impact society, but also as learning experiences for me, and with each one, you get better, but you’re always striving for perfection.”
Outside of Good Fortune, Levine is also working on another documentary called House of Rath. It is 50 percent done and they are currently raising money for the film so they can complete production. When completed, it will be a 60-minute documentary meant for national broadcast about an eccentric housing developer in lower Manhattan who gambled all he had to build his dream home just as the mortgage crisis was hitting.
Levine knows that many of amazing chances as a filmmaker stem from the fact that he was a Park Scholar.
“The Park Scholar Program was instrumental in helping me get to where I am today,” Levine said. “It gave me the resources and connections to make the transition into the professional documentary world, and freed up my time to work on my own projects, whether it was my first feature documentary or editing Buzzsaw Haircut [Magazine].”
That first feature documentary was Walking the Line about “vigilantes” on the US-Mexico border. It was screened at more than 25 film festivals around the world and it was broadcast nationally in six different countries.
As Levine continues his career as a documentary filmmaker, he’s determined to try and do what’s most important to him – “make a positive social impact.” He’s done that so far and judging by the awards and grants that he and his partner have received, that work is not going unnoticed.
Levine’s work, including a ten-minute trailer of Good Fortune, can be viewed at www.transientpictures.com.
Originally published in Park Scholar Program: Alumni Profile: Jeremy Levine '06.
