Jason Rosenfield
# Jason Rosenfield

Jason Rosenfield (born 1945, New York City) is an American film editor, writer, director, producer and educator known mostly for his work in story-driven feature-length documentaries. Elected to membership in American Cinema Editors., an honorary society of distinguished editors, he has earned multiple Emmy Awards for his work and contributed to numerous additional awards, including an Emmy Award and three nominations, an Academy Award nomination, a Peabody and R.F. Kennedy Award.

## Early life

Raised in New Rochelle, N.Y. and introduced to painting, jazz and musical theater as a child, Rosenfield was inspired to pursue a career in the arts. He attended the University of Pennsylvania until his father's death forced him to leave to help support his family. Eventually moving into New York's Greenwich Village and its dynamic mix of dancers, performance artists and filmmakers, he focused on dance before injuries and a fortuitous part-time job introduced him to film editing, which he saw as a natural extension of dance and choreography. While experimenting with cinematic form on his own, Rosenfield took freelance jobs assisting senior editors in television commercials and nonfiction programming, finally joining the Motion Picture Editors Guild in 1979 and pursuing a full-time career.

## Career

Rosenfield earned his first major feature credit with Robert Altman's Come Back to the 5 & Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean and first documentary credit with Perry Miller Adato's DGA Award-winning Eugene O’Neill: A Glory of Ghosts before moving to Los Angeles in 1989. Arnold Shapiro's The American Dream Contest and Arthur Barron's Rita Hayworth: Dancing Into the Dream was followed in 1992 by his debut as a director, writer, and producer of a theatrical short for the World Wildlife Fund, The Kingdom, which earned him a Cine Golden Eagle Award and Cindy Writing Award. He followed this as editor, writer and co-producer of Discovery Channel's To Be With Sharks, then wrote, directed and produced On Nature's Trail, an award-winning series of three short fictional children's films for National Geographic.

Between 1994 and 1997, Rosenfield edited a number of films for Half-Court Pictures’ Bill Guttentag and Vince DiPersio, including the Oscar-nominated Blues Highway and Emmy Award-winning HBO films Memphis PD and Teen Killers, before joining R. J. Cutler's Emmy Award-winning series American High for Fox and PBS. Rosenfield continued his work in television series with Bunim-Murray's 10th season of The Real World, followed by Bill Guttentag and Dick Wolf's Law & Order: Crime & Punishment, which ran for two seasons on NBC. Two years later he served as lead editor for Rob Roy Thomas’ improvisational TV comedy Free Ride.

In 2001, Rosenfield was elected to membership in American Cinema Editors (ACE), an honorary society of distinguished editors, one of a handful of documentary editors to be so honored. He has since held an active role in ACE, serving as Associate Director of the ACE Board from 2012 to 2015 and on the Membership and Eddy Awards Blue Ribbon Committees.

As Rosenfield's acclamation in the industry rose, his influence expanded beyond the editing room. Beginning in 2006, Rosenfield served three terms on the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Board of Governors, helping spearhead the annual Prime Cuts Emmy-adjacent symposiums and developing numerous special events, including "Transparent: Anatomy of an Episode," with Jill Soloway and hosted by J. J. Abrams. He spent almost two decades on the Academy's Picture Editors and Documentary Peer Groups Executive Committees.

Rosenfield's credits expanded further over the next decade with many award-winning documentaries. In 2004, he co-edited Black Sky: Burt Rutan's Race for Space, which won a Peabody Award. In 2007 and 2010, respectively, he edited Vince DiPersio's Semper Fi and the Emmy-nominated The Kennedy Detail. Between 2012 and 2014 Rosenfield collaborated with Joshua Rofé and three-time Oscar winner Mark Jonathan Harris on Rofe's feature-length documentaries Lost for Life and Swift Current, followed in 2016 by Harris’ Breaking Point: The War for Democracy in Ukraine. In 2018 he joined Rofe and Oscar winner Jordan Peele's four-part Amazon series Lorena as supervising editor. Lorena received an IDA Award nomination and premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. Other honored documentaries credits include Living Undocumented and The Seventies.

Rosenfield's experience in the editing room proved to be a catalyst for the mentorship and influence he would provide as a story and editorial consultant. Brett Fallentine's award-winning story of Compton's African-American cowboys, Fire on the Hill, initiated Rosenfield's consulting career in 2017 (he eventually received a full editing credit). That same year, Rosenfield consulted and served as supervising editor on Apo Bazidi's award-winning Resistance is Life, the story of an eight-year old Kurdish refugee fleeing ISIS. In 2018, his consulting credits included Do No Harm, Emmy winner Robyn Symon's investigative look into physician burnout, and Amelia Rose Blaire's award-winning narrative short Desert Prayer (for which he also received an editing credit). In 2019 he consulted on Ian Cheney's Picture a Scientist, which was selected for the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival, Apo Bazidi's How Far is Home, a story of Syrian refugees in America's heartland that premiered at the 2020 Cleveland International Film Festival, and Academy Award winner Mitchell Block's Sara, still in post-production.

In 2016, Rosenfield joined the faculty at USC's prestigious School of Cinematic Arts, mentoring graduate and undergraduate students through both fiction and documentary productions. He is a recurrent guest lecturer at various film schools, including ShanghaiTech University and Chapman University. In 2015, the Stowe (Vt.) Story Labs Screenwriting Workshop recruited Rosenfield as the first picture editor to serve as mentor to burgeoning screenwriters. In 2017, Rosenfield was selected by the U.S. State Department's American Film Showcase to lead international workshops on editing and storytelling.

In 2018, Rosenfield received his MFA in Film from the Vermont College of Fine Arts, delivering as his thesis project a manuscript for his memoir "Chasing the Monster: Confessions of a Film Editor," chronicling his career and life at the crossroads between art and artist. Rosenfield continues his career as an educator, film editor, consultant and writer. He is developing a documentary film based on his memoir with movie director Robert Townsend, and an online college curriculum for film students in collaboration with Peter Hawley, former Dean of Columbia College Hollywood and current Director of the Illinois Film Office

## Filmography

### Editor: Feature Documentaries

| Year | Title | Director | Notes |
| - | - | - | - |
| 2019 | Sara | Mitchell Block | Consulting Editor; In Post-Production |
| 2019 | Picture a Scientist | Ian Cheney | Consulting Editor; In Post-Production |
| 2018 | Kupenda | Philip Knowlton | |
| 2018 | Do No Harm | Robyn Symon | Consulting Editor |
| 2017-2018 | Fire on The Hill | Brett Fallentine | |
| 2017 | Resistance is Life | Apo Bazidi | Supervising Editor |
| 2016 | Breaking Point: The War for Democracy in Ukraine | Mark Jonathan Harris | Theatrical release 2018 |
| 2014 | Swift Current | Joshua Rofé | |
| 2013 | Spirit of the Marathon 2 | Jon Dunham | |
| 2012 | Lost for Life | Joshua Rofé | |
| 2010 | The Kennedy Detail | Vince DiPersio | Nominated for an Emmy Award |
| 2009 | Worse Than War | Michael DeWitt | |
| 2009 | HouseQuake | Karen Elizabeth Price | |
| 2007 | Semper Fi | Vince DiPersio | |
| 2006 | Secrets of the Code | Jonathan Stack | |
| 2004 | Black Sky: The Race for Space | Sandy Guthrie, Scott B | Received a Peabody Award |
| 2003 | Top Speed | Greg MacGillivray | Imax Feature |
| 1998 | Teen Killers: A Second Chance | Bill Guttentag & Vince DiPersio | |
| 1998 | Kids Who Kill | Jason Rosenfield | Director/Editor |
| 1996 | Memphis PD: War on the Streets | Bill Guttentag & Vince DiPersio | Received a R.F. Kennedy Award; Nominated for a CableACE Award |
| 1994 | Blues Highway | Bill Guttentag & Vince DiPersio | Nominated for an Academy Award (Oscar); Received a W.C. Handy Award; Nominated for the Chicago Intl. Film Festival Grand Prize: Gold Hugo Award |
| 1989 | A White Garment of Churches | Perry Miller Adato | |
| 1986 | Eugene O'Neill: A Glory of Ghosts | Perry Miller Adato | Received a DGA Award |

### Editor: Television Series

**Documentary**

| Year | Title | Producer | Notes |
| - | - | - | - |
| 2019 | Living Undocumented | Aaron Saidman | |
| 2018 | Lorena | Steven Berger, Jordan Peele, Amazon | Supervising Editor; Director: Joshua Rofé; 4-part limited series |
| 2015 | The Seventies: War of the Sexes | Mark Herzog, CNN | Nominated for an Emmy Award; Nominated for an IDA Award |
| 2001-2004 | Law & Order: Crime & Punishment | Bill Guttentag, Dick Wolf, NBC | |
| 1999-2000 | American High | RJ Cutler, Fox/PBS | Received an Emmy Award |
| 2001 | The Real World | Jonathan Murray & Mary-Ellis Bunim, MTV | |
| 2001 | Making the Band | Jonathan Murray & Mary-Ellis Bunim, MTV | |
| 2001 | Road Rules | Jonathan Murray & Mary-Ellis Bunim, MTV | |
| 2001 | Challenge | Jonathan Murray & Mary-Ellis Bunim, MTV | |

**Reality**

| Year | Title | Producer |
| - | - | - |
| 2012 | Face Off | Dwight Smith et al., Syfy |
| 2012 | Million Dollar Closets | Rich Bye, HGTV |
| 2010 | Drama! Pilot | Vince DiPersio, BET |

**Comedy**

| Year | Title | Director/Producer | Notes |
| - | - | - | - |
| 2009 | The Breakup Guy | Aaron Hilliard/CBS | Pilot |
| 2008 | Trendsetters | Aaron Hilliard/ABC | Pilot |
| 2006 | Free Ride | Rob Roy Thomas, Fox TV | Lead Editor |

### Editor: Narrative Films

| Year | Title | Director |
| - | - | - |
| 2018 | Desert Prayer | Courtney Thérond |
| 2016 | Echo Park Blues (Consulting Editor) | Michael Bofshever |
| 2008 | Learning to Fly | Gay Thomas |
| 1982 | Come Back to the 5 & Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean | Robert Altman |

### Director

| Year | Title | Producer | Notes |
| - | - | - | - |
| 2000-2001 | American High (Shared Credit) | RJ Cutler, Fox/PBS | TV documentary Series |
| 1998 | Kids Who Kill | John Lindsay, Oregon Public Broadcasting | TV documentary |
| 1995 | On Nature's Trail (Producer/Writer/Director) | Jason, Rosenfield, National Geographic Society | Three-part fictional children's series |
| 1992 | The Kingdom (co-producer) | Michael Rosenberg, Brion Black, World Wildlife Fund | |

### Writer

| Year | Title | Producer | Notes |
| - | - | - | - |
| 1995 | On Nature's Trail (Producer/Writer/Director) | Jason Rosenfield, National Geographic Society | Three-part fictional children's series |
| 1994 | To Be With Sharks: View From the Cage | Marty Snyderman, Discovery Channel | |
| 1992 | The Kingdom (co-producer) | Michael Rosenberg, Brion Black, World Wildlife Fund | |

### Producer

| Year | Title | Notes |
| - | - | - |
| 2012 | Million Dollar Closets | Reality TV Series, HGTV |
| 2011 | Project Accessory | Reality Competition TV Series, Lifetime |
| 2011 | Ned Bruha: Skunk Whisperer | Reality TV Series, Animal Planet |
| 2009 | Elk Avenue | TV Pilot Presentation |
| 1998 | Teen Killers: A Second Chance? | TV documentary, HBO |
| 1995 | On Nature's Trail (Producer/Writer/Director) | Three-part fictional children's series, National Geographic Society |
| 1994 | To Be with Sharks: View From the Cage (co-producer) | Producer: Marty Snyderman, Discovery Channel |
| 1992 | The Kingdom (co-producer) | Theatrical short, Producer: Michael Rosenberg, Brion Black, World Wildlife Fund |

## Awards

### Individual

| Year | Award | Title | Result |
| - | - | - | - |
| 2019 | Southampton Film Festival: Best Film Editing | Desert Prayer | Nominated |
| 1999 | Emmy Award | Teen Killers: A Second Chance? | Won |
| 1999 | Emmy Award | Kids Who Kill | Won |
| 1997 | Emmy Award | Memphis PD: War in the Streets | Won |
| 1995 | World Medal New York Festivals | On Nature's Trail | Won |
| 1995 | Columbus Intl. Film Festival: Bronze Medal | On Nature's Trail | Won |
| 1992 | CINE Golden Eagle | The Kingdom | Won |
| 1991 | Cindy Writing Award | The Kingdom | Won |
| 1984 | CINE Golden Eagle | The Cafeteria | Won |

### Production

| Year | Award | Title | Result |
| - | - | - | - |
| 2016 | Emmy Award | The Seventies | Nominated |
| 2015 | IDA Award | The Seventies | Nominated |
| 2011 | Emmy Award | The Kennedy Detail | Nominated |
| 2004 | Peabody Award | Black Sky: Burt Rutan's Race for Space | Won |
| 2000 | Emmy Award | (PBS season) American High | Nominated |
| 2000 | Emmy Award | (Fox season) American High | Won |
| 1997 | R.F. Kennedy Award | Memphis PD: War in the Streets | Won |
| 1997 | CableACE Award | Memphis PD: War in the Streets | Nominated |
| 1995 | Academy Award (Oscar) | Blues Highway | Nominated |
| 1995 | W.C. Handy Award | Blues Highway | Won |
| 1994 | Chicago Intl. Film Festival Grand Prize: Gold Hugo | Blues Highway | Nominated |
| 1986 | DGA Award | Eugene O’Neill: A Glory of Ghosts | Won |
| 1982 | Chicago Intl. Film Festival: Grand Prize: Gold Hugo | Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean | Won |
