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 Award and Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award.
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.
Rosenfield earned his first major feature credit with Robert Altman’s Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (film) and first documentary credit with Perry Miller Adato’s Directors Guild of America Award 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 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 (film) and Emmy Award-winning HBO films Memphis PD and Teen Killers , before joining R. J. Cutler’s Emmy Award-winning series American High (TV series) for Fox and PBS. Rosenfield continued his work in television series with Bunim/Murray Productions 10th season of The Real World (TV series), followed by Bill Guttentag and Dick Wolf’s 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 (TV series) . 
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 2012-2015 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 Joey 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: The 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 (TV series) . Lorena received an International Documentary Association nomination and premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. Other honored documentaries credits include Living Undocumented and The Seventies (miniseries).
Rosenfield’s experience in the editing room proved to be a catalyst for the mentorship and influence he’d 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 USC 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 (actor) , 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
===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 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award Nominated for a CableACE Award
1994 	Blues Highway 	Bill Guttentag & Vince DiPersio	Nominated for an Academy Awards Received a Blues Music Award Nominated for the Chicago International Film Festival
1989 	A White Garment of Churches 	Perry Miller Adato 	
1986 	Eugene O'Neill: A Glory of Ghosts 	Perry Miller Adato 	DGA Award
===Editor: Television Series===
====Documentary====
Year 	Title 	Producer 	Notes
2019 	Living Undocumented 	Aaron Saidman 	
2018 	Lorena 	Amazon 	Supervising Editor; Director: Joshua Rofé; 4-part limited series
2015 	The Seventies: War of the Sexes	Mark Herzog, CNN 	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 	The Challenge (TV series) 	Jonathan Murray & Mary-Ellis Bunim, MTV	
====Reality====
Year	Title 	Producer
2012	Face Off (TV series) 	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 (TV series)	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 Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (film)	Robert Altman
===Director===
Year 	Title 	Producer 	Notes
2000-2001	American High (TV series) (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) 	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 Wide Fund for Nature	
===Producer===
Year	Title 	Notes
2012	Million Dollar Closets 	Reality TV Series, HGTV
2011	Project Accessory 	Reality Competition TV Series, Lifetime (TV network)
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 Wide Fund for Nature
===Individual===
Year	Award 	Title 	Result
2019	Southampton Film Festival: Best Film Editing 	Desert Prayer 	
1999	Emmy Award 	Teen Killers: A Second Chance?	
1999	Emmy Award 	Kids Who Kill 	
1997	Emmy Award 	Memphis PD: War in the Streets	
1995	World Medal New York Festivals 	On Nature's Trail 	
1995	Columbus International Film & Animation Festival	On Nature's Trail 	
1992	CINE Golden Eagle 	The Kingdom 	
1991	Cindy Writing Award 	The Kingdom 	
1984	CINE Golden Eagle 	The Cafeteria 	
===Production===
Year	Award 	Title 	Result
2016	Emmy Award 	The Seventies 	
2015	IDA Award 	The Seventies 	
2011	Emmy Award 	The Kennedy Detail 	
2004	Peabody Award 	Black Sky: Burt Rutan's Race for Space 	
2000	Emmy Award 	American High 	
2000	Emmy Award 	American High 	
1997	Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award 	Memphis PD: War in the Streets 	
1997	CableACE Award 	Memphis PD: War in the Streets 	
1995	Academy Awards 	Blues Highway 	
1995	W.C. Handy Award 	Blues Highway (film) 	
1994	Chicago International Film Festival Grand Prize: Gold Hugo	Blues Highway (film) 	
1986	Directors Guild of America Award 	Eugene O’Neill: A Glory of Ghosts 	
1982	Chicago International Film Festival Grand Prize: Gold Hugo	Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (film)	
Category:1945 births
Category:American film editors
Category:American film directors