LOGLINE
A World War II Liberator’s daughter honors his legacy by battling disabilities, discrimination, and hate in her journey from being disabled and homeless, to repairing our broken world.
6-part TV Series
(c) 2022…Deborah Levine Enterprises LLC
31+ FILM FESTIVAL AWARDS
The Liberator’s Daughter has 31 WINNER AWARDS at international film festivals including:
1) WRPN Women’s International Film Festival, 2) Hollywood Blvd Film Festival, 3) Cineplay International, 4) Dallas Shorts, 5) Indiefare International, 6) Airflix Film, 7) Multi Dimension International, 8) Bright International, 9) EdiPlay International, 10) Magic Silver Screen Festival, 11) Medusa Film Festival, 12) Movie Play International, 13) Red Moon Film Festival, 14) Krimson Horyzon International Film Festival, 15) Cult Movies Festival, 16) Crown International, 17) Swedish International, 18) NYC International Film Festival, 19) London New Wave Cinema Awards, 20 & 21) Indie Cine Tube Awards, 22) 4th Dimension Independent film Festival, 23) Cooper Awards, 24) Tokyo Shorts, 25) 8 & Halfilm Awards, 26) New York Neorealism Film Awards, 27) Golden Giraffe International film Festival, 28) Liber Films International film Festival, 28) Cooper Awards, 29) ASAA Abdolrahman Sarraei Academic Awards, 30) Sofia International Film Festival, 31) Your Way International film Festival
– Also – Finalist at 1) Delta International, 2) Filmfest International, 3) Blackboard International. Semi-Finalist in 12 film festivals + Honorable Mention at 1) Critic’s Choice International, 2) The Filmmaker’s Space Film Festival, 3) Athens International Monthly Art Film Festival
Pilot Summary: ADRIFT Part A
This story of overcoming adversity features a young woman adrift in New York City. She experiences hate and bullying like so many immigrants and wants to return home to Bermuda. Her father, a World War II military intelligence officer, wants the family to experience a Jewish community. Although her fragile health is at risk in America, Deborah uses her genius IQ to attend Radcliffe/Harvard University. Always outspoken, she challenges the university’s status quo while pursuing studies at Harvard Divinity School and in Folklore and Mythology.
Midway through college, she returns home, her body racked with mysterious inflammation. Like so many young women suffering similarly, Deborah is told it’s all in her head and is sent to a psychiatric hospital. Determination drives her back to Harvard, but insufficiently recovered, she again goes home, completing her degree in NYC.
Deborah’s parents are disappointed and insist that she not be a financial burden. Pressured to quickly get a job after graduation, she becomes a file clerk in Manhattan’s Garment District. Experiencing sexual harassment, she joins the first Women’s Liberation March and reconnects with girl friends.
When Deborah finally gets promoted to secretary, her parents relocate to Cincinnati for her father’s job. With no resources of her own, she has to leave with her parents for an unknown future in the Midwest. Discouraged, she almost gives up. But inspired by her friends, she prays for the strength that her father had in the war and aims for a future of fame and power.
EPISODE 2: ADRIFT Part B / Homeless
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 classes and takes a job as director of the university’s interfaith 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: STORMY SEAS Part A / Despair
Deborah recovers slightly and joins her husband in Chicago at her parents’ insistence. She completes her masters degree in religion and takes an interfaith job with the American Jewish Committee. Her assignment to direct a national interfaith conference introduces her to religious, racial and ethnic diversity. Deborah’s health issues force her to resign before she can realize her dream of visiting Israel as her parents and grandparents had done. But she’s commissioned to write the book: Israel Dialogue with Christians and Jews. she develops a suburban interfaith coalition, creates a women’s council within it, joins a Black-Jewish dialogue group. and becomes a research consultant for the next century’s prayer book. Yet, financial issues pile up, her mother dies and her husband leaves for good. She despairs, but tries to go on living and writing.
EPISODE 4: STORMY SEAS Part B / The Battle
Looking for a stable life, Deborah remarries, completes a masters degree in religion, and takes a part-time job running a Jewish Federation. After interviewing Holocaust Survivors for her masters thesis, she’s motivated to move to Tulsa’s Federation after the OK City bombing. Deborah finally gets her dream wish of going on a mission to Israel. When she returns, Deborah is trained by the FBI to deal with neo-Nazis who are threatening their Jewish community. Her dad then shares that he was a US military intelligence officer (Ritchie Boy) in WW II assigned to interrogate Nazi POWs. She insists on confronting international Holocaust denier, David Irving, who reserved a meeting room at the local library. Horrified by the enthusiasm of the attendees, Deborah dedicates herself to fostering inclusion and counteracting hate.
EPISODE 5: DEEP WATERS Part A / Diversity
Deborah remarries, becomes a full-time executive director and builds Chattanooga’s Jewish cultural center. She’s excited to go on a second mission but she almost dies at their stopover in Uzbekistan. Forced to resign, 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 and a global leadership class for the growing community. When the Volkswagen plant is built in Chattanooga, she is appointed to the VW Diversity Council. Her expertise in diversity and cross-cultural background surprisingly opens the door to a new profession: training expats coming to the South.
EPISODE 6: DEEP WATERS Part B / Sailing into Port
Deborah is named a Diversity & Inclusion Trailblazer by Forbes Magazine. As the political environment becomes more divisive and hate groups multiply, she counteracts their hate 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 preserve her father’s legacy she transforms herself into a Holocaust Educator, using her dad’s letters to share his passion, and now hers. But surgery to save her life damages her voice. Unable to speak, she turns to writing and becomes an award-winning author of 18 books, founder/editor of the online American Diversity Report, and a newspaper opinion columnist. When her voice returns years later, she writes and narrates a radio theater script with her father’s letters and then develops it into an award-winning documentary: Untold, Stories of a World War II Liberator.
Deborah becomes known worldwide as a woman taking huge risks to counteract hate while overcoming disabilities and illnesses that threatened those efforts so many times.
**Deborah is a Forbes Magazine top Diversity & Inclusion Trailblazer and award-winning author of 18 books. Raised in British Bermuda, she attended Harvard U. (religion and the science of storytelling), New York U. (cultural anthropology), U. of Illinois/Chicago (urban planning), and Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies
**Founder of the American Diversity Report, she has been the Editor-in-Chief for 16 years. Deborah has been published nationally and internationally by The Christian Century, The Huffington Post, and The Bermudian Magazine and featured in the online Wall Street Journal, The Chicago Tribune, and CSPAN BOOKTV. 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.
**Deborah has received many honors: National Catholic Press Association Award, International Books for Peace Awards, and “HerStory Award” of The Women’s Federation for World Peace.
- Inter-generational education needed now – by Deborah Levine - April 19, 2024
- Tracking our Terrorist Destructors – by Deborah Levine - April 19, 2024
- UNTOLD Stories of a World War II Liberator - April 10, 2024
Oh, Deborah, to read your script leaves me breathless. What a life! And hard to believe how you overcame all those health issues… I wish you all the success you deserve.
Giselle Roeder