Some of Leo’s work:
• One Day You'll Go Blind, The New Yorker
• Body Language, Nowness
• Lost Time (2018)
• This Is How We Zoo
• Pearl Jam Foundation — Sue Bird
• Clipped Wings
• Air Pressure
• Stolen
• Leo’s Vimeo page
Film has the power to tell stories that simply help their audience understand: understand a person, place, culture, feeling, emotion, issue, or anything else. When a film shows you the life, the struggles, and the challenges of others, it can completely change your views on that subject. And it does that all by simply telling you a story.
“Exciting, busy, chaotic, and all new — things have been great since finishing Chapman!” reports Leo Pfeifer, JDogg’s 2016 scholar. Taking up residence in Los Angeles to shoot his thesis (after the school year ended, due to covid pushing production back), Leo was also employed, as of June 2022, in planning distribution on his new documentary, working freelance gigs, and volunteering as a mentor to young filmmakers at a Seattle summer camp.
Referring to himself as a commercial and documentary director, Leo feels he’s reached a stage of “real adulthood,” where he creates his own structure for life, both personally and professionally. “My life's biggest themes,” says Leo, “have centered around three things: growth, fun, and a lot of hard work.” With time to focus inward, Leo shares that he’s reached “New, exciting places in my artistic voice and mental health.” He’s very much enjoyed himself, too, shooting a project in New York, attending Coachella for the first time, and snowboarding in Mammoth. He concludes: “I found the rhythm in my new life and I'm loving the freedom.”
The hard work — and luck, Leo says — have brought incredible opportunities: “I directed a documentary for NOWNESS, released a film with The New Yorker, made a short documentary in collaboration with a wonderful nonprofit, was shortlisted for a Young Directors Award, and am gearing up to shoot my first major commercial.” Leo’s films have received over two million views, and he’s been lucky enough to witness “incredible reactions to them, both online and at festivals.”
“ As I think about all the exciting things to come in the future,” says Leo, “I also reflect on the past — and I'm reminded of the massive role that the JDogg scholarship has played in making all of this possible.”
In his final years at Chapman University's Dodge College, Leo was forced to reckon with filmmaking resources, and life in general, being totally upended due to COVID. So he got busy adapting, and “holding the commitment to my passions no matter what's happening in the world.” He completed Haven In The Booth (view trailer), a documentary about Hip Hop in The Bronx, of which he feels incredibly proud, directed a few music videos, developed a script, and finished production on a documentary project. “None of those opportunities happened the way I thought they would,” said Leo, “but sure enough, they happened. And they brought me towards my goals in a way that I thought would be impossible this year.”
In 2018, Leo released his short documentary "Lost Time." The film premiered on the site Directors Notes and was featured on BOOOOOM TV. It won best documentary at the CineYouth film festival, won the NEXT film festival award at NFFTY, earning Leo an all expense paid trip to show his film in Odense, Denmark, and the film was nominated in the documentary category in the Canadian Society of Cinematography awards.
As a student in Ballard High School’s video production program, Leo created films that received six Awards of Excellence at the Northwest Emmys, nine Official Selections at the National Film Festival for Talented Youth, and over 200,000 views online.
Leo’s work includes narrative, music video, and advertising, but his biggest interest is documentary. He likes the power of the stories that documentaries are capable of telling, and their ability to examine something real. His documentary Clipped Wings tells the stories of those most affected by the Boy Scouts’ ban on gay members. It gained a wide audience online, was featured by news and advocacy organizations, and played at festivals.
Leo has elevated the climate and learning of every class he’s been in. He enjoys other students and he listens to them. Although he always brings his own ideas to the table, on multiple occasions I’ve seen him listen for the best ideas in the room and support them. He’s one of those rare students equally adept at the social, collaborative elements of filmmaking as the technical elements. He never fails to master the technical skills necessary to realize his creative ideas.”
— Matt Lawrence, Video Production Teacher
Ballard High School
Leo personally enjoys filmmaking because of the incredible places it's taken him and the people it's allowed him to meet. In 2014, he was hired to make a film for the organization GeoFORCE Alaska. It followed one of their trips across the United States as they taught rural Alaskan youth about geology. Leo hopes to build a career on work like this, as well as creating his own films.
