Eileen Level, born from both French and Haitian parentage and first generation American is a New York City based champion of the cinema-going experience!

She has been working in the film festival industry since 2014 and since then has launched PaleFO Cinema, amplifying voices through the cinematic arena which seeks to look forward to the evolution of the cinescape experience in New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA).

Beyond this she has held the title of Head of Education at New York International Children’s Film Festival, an Oscar-qualifying film festival bringing films that represent and celebrate unique, diverse, and historically excluded voices to thousands of students throughout NYC and Newark, NJ! In 2023 Level spoke at SXSW on the 90 minute Film School panel about her journey as a budding exhibitor and mission to quench cinema deserts.

Eileen seeks to launch PaleFO Cinema, which looks forward to the evolution of the cinema landscape and its transformative capabilities in communities that need them most. Upon graduation from The New School, she has been piloting PaleFO Cinema a community-based outdoor cinema series to be produced and curated by youth with the intention to quench the thirst of cinema deserts and active creative third spaces in underserved communities.

PaleFO Cinema acts as a conduit to encourage positive recreations in high-needs communities while addressing the diminishment of movie theaters. We aim to amplify marginalized voices and empower disenfranchised communities by leveraging the potential of the cinematic experience through participatory community film curation. The ultimate goal is to build a cinema where it doesn’t exist and a cinema culture where it is needed most, to support practices in creative expression, storytelling, civic-cultural involvement and community life.

In summer 2025 PaleFO Cinema will launch the first ever cinema mural where people of all ages can enjoy access to curated and community voted films outdoors spaces. The goal is to expand to every neighborhood that is currently identified as a cinema desert – a neighborhood without a movie theater.