LOGLINE

TV PILOT of 6 Episodes: The daughter of a WW II military intelligence officer battles disabilities, sexual harassment, hate and antisemitism as she strives to heal herself and repair a broken world.

EPISODES

• EPISODE 2: WAVES OF CHANGE

Deborah ends up in the ICU of a Cincinnati hospital, but starts a masters degree at the university when she recovers. Determined to be independent, she leaves the university and takes a job as director of a nonprofit. She marries and has a daughter before her health fails and she has to resign her job. The couple separate and husband leaves for a Chicago graduate school. Her mother suffers from cancer, her brother cuts her off and Deborah becomes a homeless single mom.

• EPISODE 3: FIRST MATE IN STORMY SEAS

Deborah recovers slightly and joins her husband in Chicago at her parents’ insistence. She completes her masters degree and gets a job with a Jewish organization to honor her dying mother. After directing a national interfaith conference, Deborah’s health requires a major shift. She pioneers an interfaith coalition in the suburbs and publishes her first book on religious diversity. Financial issues pile up and her husband leaves for good. Despondent at first, she’s offered a consulting job with the national Union of American Hebrew Congregations to do research for the next century’s prayer book. Deborah decides to go on living and commutes to their New York City office.

• EPISODE 4: BATTLESHIPS AHOY

Looking for a more stable life, Deborah takes a part-time job at a Jewish Federation, remarries and completes a masters degree in religion. Having interviewed Holocaust Survivors when writing a script for a Holocaust education video, she’s motivated to work in Tulsa after the OK City bombing by extremists. Deborah is trained by the FBI to deal with neo-Nazis and confronts international Holocaust denier, David Irving. She reunites with her brother and her father visits Tulsa. Her life’s goals change when she discovers that dad was a US military intelligence officer in WW II assigned to interrogate Nazi prisoners of war.  Deborah responds when the Federation in Chattanooga needs a new executive director who can build a Jewish cultural center to serve the community. 

• • EPISODE 5: SKIPPER TO THE RESCUE

Deborah becomes a full-time executive director and builds Chattanooga’s Jewish cultural center. But she almost dies on a Uzbekistan mission, resigns, and her husband supports them as a

math teacher. Her brother and father come to Chattanooga to support her as she heals. Recovering, she creates a Women’s Council on

Diversity to stay active and connected to the community. When the Volkswagen plant is built in Chattanooga, her expertise in diversity and cross-cultural background surprisingly turns this hobby into a new profession training expats in the South.

• • EPISODE 6: NAVIGATING DEEP WATERS

Deborah is named a Diversity & Inclusion Trailblazer by Forbes Magazine. As the political environment becomes more divisive and hate groups multiply, she counteracts their racism and antisemitism in her writing and speaking. The additional visibility leads to her being targeting by neo-Nazi groups online and she’s again protected by the FBI. Determined to persevere in her efforts, she transforms herself into a Holocaust Educator, using her dad’s letters to share his passion, and now hers. Robbed of her voice by surgery gone wrong, she turns to writing and becomes an award-winning author of 15 books, founder/editor of the online American Diversity Report, and a newspaper opinion columnist. She uses her talents to counteract hate and antisemitism and when her voice returns, she writes and narrates a radio theater script with her father’s letters. 

CHARACTERS

Deborah Levine – Deborah was born in Brooklyn and brought up in Bermuda as the only Jewish little girl on the British island. When the family moves to New York, she’s bullied for being different. Unaware of the impact of her Jewish and immigrant background, she struggles to fit in. Battling health problems of chronic pain, discouragement and disabilities, her courage not only keeps her alive, but empowers her to confront the country’s growing hate and antisemitism.

Estelle Levine – Deborah’s mother, mid-fifties, soft and plump. She was brought up in Bermuda, where her father was an entrepreneurial Jewish Ukrainian immigrant. She has a soft island voice, and colonial British demeanor. Brilliant, she attended Radcliffe, pioneered special education and has a deep understanding of human nature that Deborah unknowingly absorbs. 

Judy – Deborah’s best friend, early-twenties, tall and athletic. A born New Yorker, she is both direct and protective. A conservative Jew, she is the daughter of an engineer and a mathematics professor, grand-daughter of Jewish Ukrainian immigrants. Judy and Deborah were in advanced math and science classes in HS and have been friends ever since. But family and jobs keep them apart and strain their friendship.

Aaron Levine – Deborah’s father, late-fifties, slender with military posture. He is a first-generation American-born Jew. Harvard educated, his passion is poetry and historical biographies. A U.S. military intelligence officer during World War II, Aaron was assigned to interrogate Nazi prisoners of war. After a post-war business career, he became the American Jewish Archives CFO. He’s precise and exacting, with unrealistically high expectations of Deborah.

Joe Levine – Deborah’s brother, mid-twenties, handsome with slender, athletic build. His passions growing up in Bermuda stayed with him: soccer, fishing and boating. He’s rebellious and moves to California where he becomes a photographer and marries. Deeply protective of Deborah, he’s also impish and snarky, teasing her relentlessly throughout their lives. 

23 WINNER AWARDS
WINNER Awards from 23 film festivals for the TV pilot script, The Liberator’s Daughter include:

 

1. Cooper Awards
2. WRPN Women’s International Film Festival
3. 4th dimension Independent Film Festival,
4. Dallas Shorts
5. Magic Silver Screen
6. Tokyo Shorts
7. London Filmmaker Awards
8. Swedish International Film Festival
9. Hollywood Blvd Film Festival
10. Cineplay International
11. Indiefare International
12. Multi Dimension International
13. Bright International
14. EdiPlay International
15. Medudsa Film Festival
16. Movie Play International
17. Red Moon Film Festival
18. Krimson Horyzon International Film Festival
19. Crown International Film Festival
20. Airflix Film Festival
21. NYC International Film Festival
22. Indie Cine Tube Awards (2 Winner awards)
23. Cult Movies International Film Festival

ABOUT DEBORAH LEVINE

Deborah is a Forbes Magazine top Diversity & Inclusion Pioneer and award-winning author of 15 books. Raised in British Bermuda, she attended Harvard where she studied belief systems and the science of storytelling at Harvard Divinity School and in her Folklore & Mythology major. 

She is the Founder of the American Diversity Report and its Editor-in-Chief for 16 years. Deborah has coached and published dozens of writers from around the world and taught writing at a College of Engineering and Computer Science, serving as its Research Coordinator.

Deborah has been published nationally and internationally by The Forward, The Christian Century, The Huffington Post, and The Bermudian Magazine. Her academic articles appear in The Harvard Divinity School Bulletin,The American Journal of Community Psychology, Journal of Ecumenical Studies, Journal of Society of Dance History Scholars, and Journal of Public Management & Social Policy.

In addition to Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, Deborah writes on hate-related issues, has been trained by the FBI in security and deals with the antisemitic bloggers who target her opinion columns for The Chattanooga Times Free Press. She is featured in major media outlets: Online Wall Street Journal, The Chicago Tribune, and CSPAN BOOKTV. Deborah has received many honors: National Press Association Award, International Books for Peace Awards, and “HerStory Award” of The Women’s Federation for World Peace.