Jeremy Borison: Alliance

2024 Filmmakers in Residence

Yeshiva University has never been an inviting place for LGBTQ students, and the ongoing lawsuit between YU and its Pride Alliance student club has made that much more explicit. Molly Miasels and Eli S. were two of the student leaders who filed the lawsuit after YU officially rejected an LGBTQ student club. At the time, they were proud to be giving a voice to the many queer students on campus who felt ignored and often scared. However, though they knowingly became representatives for LGBTQ activism in the community, they didn't expect the level of aggression they would face as representatives of YU's anti-religious vitriol. In 2021, YU applied for a stay with the Supreme Court, which brought national attention to the lawsuit. Now, the Pride Alliance is being exploited for national political agendas in a fight between religious freedom and anti-discrimination. 

Jeremy Borison is a queer, Modern Orthodox filmmaker originally from Cleveland, Ohio. He has participated in various initiatives that explore art and religion, as an Asylum Arts Fellow, a writer for Imagination Productions, and a fellow of the Start South art therapy program. His films have received grants from organizations including Micah Philanthropies, Aviv Foundation, and the Steven Spielberg-supported Jewish Story Partners, for their work towards LGBTQ inclusion in religious communities. Jeremy’s short films have played internationally and received awards including the Arthur Miller Creative Arts Award, the AES Short Film Competition, and the North Carolina Film Award. Jeremy recently completed his debut feature film ‘Unspoken,' about a closeted teenager in a Modern Orthodox community who finds a love letter from before the Holocaust written to his grandfather by another man. He is currently in production for the documentary feature “Alliance,” which follows the ongoing Supreme Court lawsuit between the Orthodox institution Yeshiva University and its LGBTQ student club.