Biography

JLee MacKenzie is an American screenwriter, director, producer and animator who earned his Masters Degree at USC School of Cinematic Arts on a George Lucas Scholarship. He holds a BFA in Creative Media from Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont. His films have premiered at film festivals internationally including The American Pavilion Emerging Filmmaker Showcase at Cannes Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, animated showcase curated by Whoopi Goldberg and Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

In 2018 he was the recipient of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra Award, and completed his film The Greatest Night, which toured with the Vermont Symphony Orchestra while they performed the score live for their audiences.

In 2017 he received the James Goldstone Emerging Filmmaker Award from the Vermont International Film Foundation for his biographical film Hidden Blueprints, which was co-produced by Julie Pacino. Hidden Blueprints was distributed by PBS.

In 2015 he was a Screenwriting Fellow to Stowe Story Labs, and won Gold in the PAGE International Screenwriting Awards for his screenplay Flicker.

JLee MacKenzie is a Right of Return USA Fellow who's film career began while working as a prison movie projectionist where he projected movies onto a prison wall. There, he saw the freeing effect cinema had on people and was inspired to become a filmmaker himself.

JLee is a cross genre filmmaker who works in any medium with a story that compels him, often focused on drama, comedy, childhood and magical realism.
- IMDb mini biography by: The Film Team