Halpern, Leslie 1960–

PERSONAL: Born February 24, 1960, in Louisville, KY; daughter of Albert (a housing management supervisor) and Anna Fay (Brownstein) Michelson; married Steven Halpern (a support manager), November 10, 1985; children: Alexander. Education: University of Kentucky, B.A., 1982; Rollins College, M.A. (liberal studies), 2002. Religion: Jewish.

ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Author Mail, McFarland and Co., Inc., P.O. Box 611, Jefferson, NC 28640-0611. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Writer, editor, and columnist. Heritage Florida Jewish News, Fern Park, associate editor, 1984; Harcourt Brace Jovanovich (book publisher), Orlando, FL, international promotions coordinator, 1985–86; Avionics Research Corp., Orlando, senior technical writer and editor for presentations and communications department, 1987–92; Hollywood Reporter, stringer from Florida, 1989–2003; Orlando Sentinel, Orlando, correspondent, 1998–2003; Markee magazine, columnist and staff writer, 1998–2005. Freelance writer; worked as a staff writer for Entertainment Revue and Orlando Weekly; also worked as production assistant for an independent film and as a communications consultant. Young Company/Tomorrow's Promise (Shakespeare festival), Orlando, part-time education coordinator, 1994–97. Worked as mystery shopper, 1989–98. Has appeared as a guest on TV Ontario's educational series, Saturday Night at the Movies, 2004.

MEMBER: Enzian Film Society, Florida Writer's Association, Florida Freelance Writers Association, Professional Freelance Writers—Orlando.

AWARDS, HONORS: Distinguished service award, Florida Literacy Coalition, 1990; letter of commendation, Martin Marietta Aerospace, 1991; Mentor Award, Mentor and Protégé, 1997.

WRITINGS:

(Coauthor) Windows to the World, Cablevision, 1990.

Dreams on Film: The Cinematic Struggle between Art and Science, McFarland and Co. (Jefferson, NC), 2003.

Reel Romance: The Lovers' Guide to the 100 Best Date Movies, Taylor Trade Publishing (Lanham, MD), 2004.

Contributor to reference books. Contributor of more than 1,000 articles, essays, and poems to magazines and newspapers, including American Boat Modeler, Bluegrass Unlimited, Country Almanac, Daily Variety, Fitness, Florida Reel, Journal of Graduate Liberal Studies, Just for Laughs, Metro Orlando Home, Middle Eastern Dancer, New Writers, Small Business Opportunities, Storytelling, Writers' Journal, and True Romance.

SIDELIGHTS: Leslie Halpern told CA: "When I dream at night, it's usually about my teeth falling out, getting lost in the car, or having my purse stolen. As a longtime film and entertainment writer and an even longer-time dream diarist, I couldn't help but notice that, in the movies, characters' dreams are far more meaningful than mine. Their nocturnal revelations solve murder mysteries, foresee the end of the world, deliver messages from divine sources, and provide masterful insights about the dreamer.

"My book Dreams on Film: The Cinematic Struggle between Art and Science, explores this dichotomy. Blending film analysis, psychology, sleep science, and interviews with filmmakers, Dreams on Film is a study of the representation of sleeping and dreaming in more than 125 movies.

"Just as dreamers accept their own nightly visions as real while they are asleep, moviegoers accept the reality of the film while they are in the theater. Is it for the sake of art that we believe our filmic dream, temporarily forgetting the rumors of on-set romances and magazine articles alleging theft of intellectual property? When films include dream sequences (that is, a dream within a dream), do we further suspend our disbelief by seeking the emotional truth that finds expression in artistic imagination?

"Contrary to the literal truth of modern neuroscience, most dreaming and sleeping states on film instead remain faithful to the colorful early twentieth-century theories of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. Why is sleep science misrepresented in the movies? Why do audiences embrace this deception? Is there interplay between art and science in depictions of sleeping and dreaming? In short, why do movie characters dream better than the rest of us?

"Dreams on Film represents my three-year quest to get some answers. Not exactly earth-shattering questions, I admit, but I couldn't sleep (literally and figuratively) until I got them answered."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

ONLINE

Leslie Halpern Home Page, http://home.cfl.rr.com/lesliehalpern/ (July 3, 2005).

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Online, http://www.jsonline.com/ (February 11, 2004), Dave Tianen, review of Reel Romance: The Lovers' Guide to the 100 Best Date Movies.