{{short description|American film director, producer and screenwriter}} {{Use mdy dates|date=June 2020}} {{infobox person | name = Danielle Lessovitz | birth_place = San Francisco, California, United States | occupation = Director, producer, screenwriter | known_for = ''Port Authority'' (2019) }} '''Danielle Lessovitz''' is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. She began her career in 2008, releasing several short films before her feature directorial debut ''Port Authority'', which premiered at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival's Un Certain Regard section.<ref name="pond">{{Cite web|last=Pond|first=Steve|date=May 18, 2019|title='Port Authority' Film Review: Searching for Family in New York's LGBT Ball Scene|url=https://www.thewrap.com/port-authority-film-review-searching-for-family-in-new-yorks-lgbt-ball-scene/|access-date=June 11, 2020|website=TheWrap}}</ref> She has screened her films at more than 100 film festivals worldwide.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Danielle Lessovitz - Sundance Collab|url=https://collab.sundance.org/people/Danielle-Lessovitz-1578521218|access-date=2021-12-07|website=collab.sundance.org|language=en}}</ref> She typically casts non-actors in her films, and focuses on marginalized communities.
== Early life and education == Lessovitz was born in San Francisco. She grew up in Kansas City during the 1990s, but is currently based in New York City.<ref name=brooklyn/>
She identifies as a queer woman. Lessovitz uses female pronouns and sees herself as "quite genderless", explaining: "gender [is] a sort of weird thing for me, because I don't necessarily feel one way or another".<ref name="dry" /> Living in Kansas City, Lessovitz was surrounded by a largely evangelical community, in which she experienced a lot of shame for being queer.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Female Filmmakers in Focus: Danielle Lessovitz on 'Port Authority' & 'Ratcatcher'|url=https://www.moviefone.com/2021/05/28/female-filmmakers-in-focus-danielle-lessovitz-on-port-authority-ratcatcher/|access-date=2021-12-07|website=www.moviefone.com|language=en}}</ref>
After finishing her studies at Northwestern, she travelled across the US and internationally before ending up in New York City. While in New York, she received a Master of Fine Arts in Film Directing from New York University Tisch School of the Arts, where she was awarded a fellowship for her studies and taught by, among others, Ira Sachs.<ref name="brooklyn">{{Cite web|title=Brooklyn Filmmakers Collective – Danielle Lessovitz|url=http://brooklynfilmmakerscollective.com/members/danielle-lessovitz|access-date=June 11, 2020|website=Brooklyn Filmmakers Collective}}</ref><ref name="berger" /> She currently works as a professor of filmmaking at Rutgers University.<ref name="dry" />
== Career == In 2012, Lessovitz made the short ''The Earthquake'', written in 2010 after reading about Haitian communities in Queens experiencing loss from afar after the 2010 Haiti earthquake.<ref name=":1">{{cite web|title=The Earthquake|url=https://www.torinofilmfest.org/en/30-torino-film-festival/film/the-earthquake/13091/|access-date=June 11, 2020|website=Torino Film Fest}}</ref> The film is set in Brooklyn and depicts a pregnant Haitian refugee as she worries about the health of her baby. It was screened at the 30th annual Torino Film Festival. From this film, Lessovitz was honored with a New Filmmaker Award from the Philadelphia Jewish Film Society, Best Hartland short at the Kansas City Film Festival, and the Ben Lazeroff Award for screenwriting.<ref name=":1" />
Lessovitz's first project to participate at the Cannes Film Festival was the dramatic film ''Mobile Homes'' (2017), directed by Vladamir de Fontenay. She co-executive produced the film with Charles de Rosen and worked as an artistic collaborator with de Fontenay in the writing process.<ref name="dry" /><ref name="berger">{{Cite web|title=Cannes 2019 Women Directors: Meet Danielle Lessovitz – "Port Authority"|url=https://womenandhollywood.com/cannes-2019-women-directors-meet-danielle-lessovitz-port-authority/|access-date=June 11, 2020|website=Women and Hollywood|last=Berger|first=Laura}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Hunter|first=Allan|title='Mobile Homes': Cannes Review|url=https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/mobile-homes-cannes-review/5118275.article|access-date=June 11, 2020|website=Screen Daily}}</ref> Eric Kohn for ''IndieWire'' said that for the film, Lessovitz "burrows inside a persecuted world without pandering to it".<ref name="kohn" />
=== ''Port Authority'' (2019) === Her feature film directing debut was made with ''Port Authority'' (2019), which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival's Un Certain Regard section. The film is set in the New York ball subculture and tells the love story of Wye (Leyna Bloom), a black transgender woman, and Paul (Fionn Whitehead), a homeless white man. The films premiere marked an important moment in Cannes history, as Leyna Bloom became the first black trans actress to star as lead in a film at the festival.<ref name="pond" /><ref name="cinefile">{{Cite web|last=Hyams|first=Rosslyn|date=September 25, 2019|title=Cinefile September 2019 – Port Authority, Du Sable et du Feu|url=http://www.rfi.fr/en/culture/20190925-cinefile-september-2019-port-authority-du-sable-et-du-feu|access-date=June 11, 2020|website=RFI}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Leyna Bloom on 'Port Authority' and Telling Trans Women's Stories|url=https://www.wmagazine.com/culture/leyna-bloom-port-authority-social-media-interview|access-date=2021-12-07|website=W Magazine|date=May 25, 2021 |language=en}}</ref>
The film was executive produced by Martin Scorsese, who Lessovitz said she was scared to reveal the final product to,<ref name="hinds" /> explaining that "to feel like you have one of the most if not the most important American auteurs opening up his wisdom and his mentorship to you is surreal".<ref name="dry" />
Taylor B. Hinds for ''I AM FILM'' wrote that Lessovitz "displaces the ... white-male role to the outskirts of the queer culture" in the film, also forcing Whitehead's character Paul to rediscover his sexuality and masculinity while engulfed in the ball scene.<ref name=hinds>{{Cite web|last=Hinds|first=Taylor B.|date=November 29, 2019|title=Five Filmmakers to Watch in 2019|url=https://www.iam.film/press/female-filmmakers-i-am-rising|access-date=June 11, 2020|website=I AM FILM|archive-date=June 11, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200611031629/https://www.iam.film/press/female-filmmakers-i-am-rising|url-status=dead}}</ref> Lessovitz has said that she knew of ball culture from having seen ''Paris Is Burning'' as a film student, but did not know that it was still around in the 2010s until she was invited to one while in a crisis after her father's suicide; watching people vogueing gave her "respite" in this time, and speaking to drag families helped her gain a fresh understanding of family structures.<ref name=cinefile/> The character of Paul has several parallels with Lessovitz, but she explains that his male privilege is explored in the film, something she has never experienced.<ref name=cinefile/>
The film also confronts Paul's identity as a white person, something that ''IndieWire''<nowiki/>'s Jude Dry said Lessovitz "clearly gave a lot of thought"; interviewed by the outlet from Cannes, she said:<blockquote>We need to have conversations, especially as white allies ... How do we tell these stories that are important to us and relevant to us? How do we do it in a way that's consistent with the deeper humanity that runs through all of us? And we need to have a middle ground where we're not working in a space that's commercial or fetishistic and sort of wanting to exploit or profit off of the beautiful cultural contributions of a class of marginalized people.<ref name=dry>{{cite web|last=Dry|first=Jude|date=May 22, 2019|title=How Martin Scorsese Helped Tender Trans Romance 'Port Authority' Get to Cannes|url=https://www.indiewire.com/2019/05/port-authority-martin-scorsese-danielle-lessovitz-lgbt-1202143747/|access-date=June 11, 2020|website=IndieWire}}</ref></blockquote> Kohn said that Lessovitz's "ability to address the drama's specific hook in measured terms enables this scrappy little movie to strike a quietly progressive note".<ref name=kohn>{{cite web|last=Kohn|first=Eric|date=May 18, 2019|title=Martin Scorsese-Produced Trans Drama 'Port Authority' Is Quietly Progressive — Cannes Review|url=https://www.indiewire.com/2019/05/port-authority-review-cannes-2019-1202142282/|access-date=June 11, 2020|website=IndieWire}}</ref>
== Filmography == {| class="wikitable sortable" |+Film !Year !Title !Director !Writer !Producer !Notes |- |2008 |''Repetitive Acts'' |{{yes}} | {{yes}} | {{yes}} |Short |- |2008 |''The Fish'' | {{yes}} | {{yes}} | {{yes}} |Short |- |2009 |''Batteries'' | {{yes}} | {{yes}} | {{yes}} |Short |- |2012 |''The Earthquake'' | {{yes}} | {{yes}} | {{yes|Co-producer}} |Short |- |2013 |''Neon Heartache'' | {{yes}} | {{yes}} | {{yes}} |Short |- |2013 |''The Anatomy of Injury'' | {{yes}} | {{yes}} |{{no}} |Short |- |2014 |''Juan Doffo'' | {{yes}} | {{yes}} |{{no}} |Short |- |2015 |''LP'' |{{no}} | {{yes}} |{{no}} |Short |- |2017 |''Mobile Homes'' |{{no}} | {{yes|Co-writer}} | {{yes|Co-producer}} | |- |2019 |''Port Authority'' | {{yes}} | {{yes}} |{{no}} |Feature directorial debut |}
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *{{IMDb name|3282884}} *[https://vimeo.com/user505313 Danielle Lessovitz] on Vimeo
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lessovitz, Danielle}} Category:American women film directors Category:American women screenwriters Category:Film directors from San Francisco Category:Screenwriters from San Francisco Category:Writers from Kansas City, Missouri Category:Film directors from Missouri Category:Screenwriters from Missouri Category:Jewish American screenwriters Category:American LGBTQ film directors Category:LGBTQ film producers Category:American LGBTQ screenwriters Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:Living people Category:21st-century American screenwriters Category:21st-century American women writers Category:21st-century American Jews Category:21st-century American LGBTQ people Category:LGBTQ people from Missouri Category:LGBTQ people from California