As a writer Jake’s focus is creating community through story.
Jake’s work centers LGBTQ+ characters and themes we have not seen in mainstream media.
TOP (feature film screenplay)
SYNOPSIS:
2020, Seattle. In the midst of a frantic pandemic, when a rare chance opens for gender affirming top surgery, 39-year-old Matt Levit is faced with the decision of a lifetime. With lively girlfriend Leisha Meyer by his side, Matt navigates the bureaucracy of the top surgery process. But once Matt is thrown deep into surgery recovery, he suddenly finds his present intertwining with his past self, Kimberly. Plunging through past and present, Matt is dropped into confronting the changing landscapes of friendships, sudden loss of his mother, and Jewish identity as a transgender person. The more Matt is compelled to pull at the threads of time, relationships, and gender, the more he uncovers the complex elements that make up a life. An unflinchingly honest and up close ride in the quest to know what it is to be our authentic selves.
LOG LINE:
Deep in a pandemic, 39-year-old Matt Levit's reality is turned upside down when he is thrust into recovery from gender affirming top surgery. When Matt's past intertwines with his present, he is forced to reckon with long buried demons.
AWARDS:
Artist Trust Fellowship Award Lillian Miller Foundation, Sundance Screenwriters Lab 2nd Round Pick
CONTACT:
TOP (short film)
SYNOPSIS:
Finally at the hospital for his long awaited gender affirming top surgery, 39-year-old Matt Levit, with lively girlfriend Leisha Meyer by his side, navigates the bureaucracy of the top surgery process. But once Matt is thrown deep into surgery day, he suddenly finds his present intertwining with his past self, Kimberly. Plunging through past and present, Matt is dropped into confronting his relationship with his chest and sudden loss of his mother, Nancy.
LOG LINE:
39-year-old Matt Levit's reality is turned upside down on the day of his gender affirming top surgery. When Matt’s past intertwines with his present, he is forced to reckon with his relationship with his chest as well as his mother.
AWARDS:
Artist Trust Fellowship Award Lillian Miller Foundation
CONTACT:
Small Town Outlaws (feature film screenplay)
SYNOPSIS:
17-year-old Marian Crestwell’s life is speeding toward the future her powerful father, Mayor Thomas Crestwell, has planed, until her path unexpectedly collides with the leader of the town's notorious queer gang, Robin Maxing. When Robin is blamed for a string of arsons blazing through town, Robin and her gang, The Wolves, pull Marian into a world of survival, causing Marian to question all she believes. Robin and The Wolves must fight to clear their names or be torn apart.
LOG LINE:
As mysterious arsons blaze through the small town of Liberty, New York, Robin and her queer gang, the Wolves, must seek to clear their names at all costs.
AWARDS:
Sundance Screenwriters Lab 2nd Round Pick
CONTACT:
Rules For Drowning (feature film screenplay)
SYNOPSIS:
1999, Seattle. Video store employee Jamie has been avoiding her friends all week to make room for her new obsession: an intriguing girl co-worker named Alex. When her crush goes wrong, and strange new breathing attacks surface, Jamie and her uptight friend, Quin, embark on a road trip to Portland, Oregon in search of a solution to Jamie’s mounting fears of insignificance, resulting from the recent death of Jamie’s mother.
LOG LINE:
A stolen typewriter, mysterious breathing attacks, and a girl-crush gone wrong, send 24-year-old Jamie, and her uptight friend Quin, on a road trip and misadventure in the Pacific Northwest.
AWARDS:
Academy Nicholl Fellowship Quarterfinalist, Gotham (IFP) Emerging Narrative Program
CONTACT: