Jessie Levene

My essay ‘Rat Year’, about my experience of the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake, was longlisted for the Creative Nonfiction Collective Society/Humber Literary Review 2020 Contest.

Thrilled that ‘Kaysaythot – the K’ómoks Treaty Podcast’ which I produced for K’ómoks First Nation is now online! Learn directly from K’ómoks members about their journey through the modern Treaty process – which, should the community vote yes, will make K’ómoks self-governing for the first time since colonization. It boggles my mind that the Indian Act still exists – a racist piece of legislation designed to keep Indigenous people powerless and in poverty. Iiiiimoot (huge thanks) to everyone in the KFN Treaty Team for their awesome work on this project.

My special week-long series looking at the need for supportive housing in the Comox Valley for CBC’s All Points West is now online. Listen here.

I recently branched out into a new area – location sound recording for film. It was for a documentary, ‘Save Space Nugget’, commissioned by Telus On Demand. The film chronicles how my own amazing community, Cumberland, BC, came together to save the forest that surrounds the village. You can watch the documentary here, and learn more about the incredible Cumberland Forest Society here.

The old Canada Post mailboxes of Denman Island may be gone, but they’re not forgotten. Watch my most recent photofilm, ‘Seeing Green – A Denman Love Letter’, here.

My feature documentary ‘Ahousaht: Story of a Skatepark’ aired recently on CBC1’s Unreserved. This was an incredibly fulfilling piece to make – it’s my first piece for Canadian radio and the CBC, and a wonderfully positive and uplifting story to boot. I also received fantastically supportive mentoring from Iris Yudai, Executive Producer of Unreserved, via the brilliant Doc Project. Listen online here, or even better, subscribe to the Unreserved podcast for your weekly dose of Indigenous community, culture and conversation.

I am beyond thrilled to be currently producing my first radio documentary for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation! The finished doc will air on CBC1’s Unreserved, the radio space for Indigenous community, culture and conversation. And that’s not all – I was also lucky enough to be selected for CBC’s Doc Project Mentorship Program, which pairs veteran producers with emerging talent, and airs the resulting documentary on the CBC1 show, The Doc Project. My mentor is the  editor of Unreserved, Iris Yudai, who has over 20 years experience at CBC, and who I am enjoying working with immensely. Read all about me and my fellow mentees and our forthcoming documentaries here.

I’ve recently started a new project, ‘The Isle is Full of Noises’, a rolling collection of my field recordings from Vancouver Island and it’s surroundings – short, simple and evocative sounds that aurally capture the magic of this beautiful place I call home. Enjoy!

The last BBC programme I worked on before moving to Canada has finally been broadcast! It’s an episode of the long-running, award-winning Radio 4 series The Reunion, which reunites a group of people intimately involved in a moment of modern history – which in this edition is the opening of Tate Modern, Britain’s first national museum of modern art. I started researching and assembling the archive materials for this Reunion way back in 2014, so it was a real pleasure to hear some of those clips again in the finished programme. But my favourite moment came during one of the group discussions, when Tate Director Nick Serota recalled the Queen’s question to him on entering the Rothko Room for the first time: “Is this man into Zen?”

Hello and long time no see! Yes, it’s been a little quiet here for the last couple of years (!), mainly due to my moving to Canada in March 2015 and taking a little hiatus from journalism. However, I am over the moon to report that that hiatus is now more or less over – more details will be coming soon, but until then, here is my brand spanking new business card – available for commissions and collaborations, teaching and trades! And for your listening pleasure, here are my 2015 and 2016 entries into KCRW’s fabulous annual Race Race, a hugely fun 24-hour radio challenge.