Jeremy Lee MacKenzie

Jeremy Lee MacKenzie is a screenwriter, director, and wood-scrollwork artist. Jeremy's original dream was to be an architect; to design the blueprints for skyscrapers. But after becoming diverted by drugs as a teenager he served a total of eight years in prison for bank robbery and heroin trafficking. An influential moment in his incarceration came when he was shipped a thousand miles from home to Corrections Corporation of America's (for-profit-prison), the "Lee Adjustment Center" in Beattyville KY, where witnessed forms of racial segregation in the 21st century, and he was in the riot that burned the prison in 2004. During the lock-down that followed, he revived his dream of being an architect by teaching himself to design the blueprints for wood-scrollwork, a technique of cutting art in wood. Throughout his years of incarceration he went on to design the blueprints for a collection of artwork which reflected the life he built for himself on the inside. His large-scale blueprints, designed on taped together pieces of paper, were considered contraband and remained hidden in prison until his release years later when he brought them home and meticulously cut them in mahogany. That collection, called "Hidden Blueprints," went on to be shown in Galleries across the state, and was shown in the Vermont State Capitol in January 2016. The most influential moment of Jeremy's time "on the inside" came when he worked as a prison movie projectionist; where he would set up a make-shift movie theater each week to project films onto a dark wall for prisoners to watch. Seeing how stories had the power to effect people, he vowed to become a filmmaker, and studied screenwriting, psychology, philosophy, and literature for the rest of his years in prison. By the end of his final sentence, Jeremy was awarded scholarships for college where he became a 4.0 student, and went on to become a speaker for grassroots organizations such as Vermonter's for Criminal Justice Reform, and Dismas House, a non-profit with the goal of helping former prisoners have a home to return to in the community. During college, he wrote and directed short films which were featured in The Vermont Filmmaker's Showcase, in the Vermont International Film Festival, and the White River Indie Festival, and received his first screenwriting fellowship to Stowe Story Labs. In October 2015 he won Gold in the PAGE International Screenwriting Awards in Los Angeles with his screenplay "Flicker," which he went on to produce, direct, and co-composed the music for. And he is now writing his third feature length screenplay, which he also plans to direct.