Jonathan Blitstein

Jonathan Blitstein (born in Lake Forest, Illinois) is an American indie filmmaker and screenwriter. He graduated from Highland Park High School after briefly attending Adlai E. Stevenson High School (Lincolnshire, Illinois). A graduate of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts undergraduate film program, he finished shooting his debut feature length film Let Them Chirp Awhile when he was still 23 years old, making him one of the youngest auteur/editor/producers to make a 35mm feature outside the studios. Partial funding for the film came from NYU's Richard Vague Award^[1] Previously he made a short film called The Fisherboy which premiered at the Rhode Island Film Festival in 2005.^[2]

1 Early Work
2 Filmmaker Influences
3 References
4 External links
5 Bibliography / Notes

Early Work

Blitstein made his first short films when he was 8 years old using a 1980's Zenith 8mm video camera given to him by his father. Originally interested in acting and singing, he performed in school and local theater productions in the Chicago suburbs before seriously pursuing filmmaking. Other childhood interests included magic tricks and illusions, video games, model-rocketry, illustration and drawing, comic books, baseball cards, and action figures. As a young boy, Blitstein was fascinated by creature-effects and film make-up made popular by Rick Baker and Stan Winston.

Blitstein graduated in 3 years from NYU and spent much of his time there watching DVDs, reading poetry, plays, and other literature in addition to working in various aspects of production including work as a production assistant and boom operator on student films. During his freshman year he interned at Killer Films. Blitstein made a brief foray out of the film school and into the College of Arts and Sciences during his sophomore and junior years earning enough credits for a Minor in English and American Letters before returning to the film program to finish his degree. He also briefly contributed to the Washington Square News, the NYU Newspaper.

He has lectured at American high schools and acting studios about the process of making Let Them Chirp Awhile. In 2007 he participated on a panel at the Santa Fe Film Festival about independent filmmaking called "Bootstrap Cinema".^[3]

Filmmaker Influences

In interviews he has cited filmmaker influences ranging from silent filmmakers such as F.W. Murnau and Charles Chaplin to Italian filmmakers like Federico Fellini and Michelangelo Antonioni as well as Hollywood big wigs like Tim Burton, Steven Spielberg, Alfred Hitchcock, Woody Allen and Frank Capra.

He has one sibling, Ryan Blitstein, who is an American journalist. They are first-cousins to Jeremy Stoppelman who is the CEO/co-founder of Yelp, Inc. Blitstein is also a first-cousin to Darren Spitzer, lead singer of The Changes who contributed songs to the film. Blitstein is a collaborator and lifelong friend of cinematic-pop rock musician Bryan Scary who also contributed songs to the film.^[4]