Sam Levy
Diet

The Cinematographer

Sam Levy was born and raised in an artistic household in Boston, Massachusetts. His father is a violinist with the Boston Symphony, and his mother is an accomplished flutist. Levy says that being around music at a young age inspired him to be creative.

He is a graduate of Brown University, where he studied film production with Leslie Thornton, and advanced film production at the Rhode Island School of Design. During his junior year, Levy studied film theory and production in Paris under director Eric Rohmer (Pauline at the Beach, My Night at Maud’s).

While on summer break from school, he was an intern at Epoch Films in New York, which led him to become an assistant cameraman. Levy has worked with Harris Savides, ASC, Tami Reiker, Darius Khondji, ASC, AFC and Peter Donahue and notes these cinematographers have been particularly inspiring.

The Film

Diet is a comedy about a midwestern husband who has to cope with a diet forced on him by his wife. Desperate for meat, but paralyzed by his wife’s iron will, the husband takes to trolling for half-eaten burgers in the company trash. She has him followed and every time he gets near a piece of beef, there is someone lurking in the shadows. Diet was shot over a period of one week in Chicago, home of the film’s director Mike Meiners.

“Mike and I went to the great Chicago Art Institute and talked about the film’s characters,” explains Levy. “We discussed how we’d like to shoot them, and with which color palette.”

Diet has played at a number of festivals throughout the United States and Levy is thrilled that it will be shown in the ICG Showcase. “To receive an award in recognition of the cinematography of this short film, especially from the union with the greatest cinematographers in the world, has built my confidence immensely,” says Levy.