For Jeremiah Battle, a talented track and field athlete at Stevenson University, sports have always had a dominant place in his life. His energetic attitude and natural athletic abilities helped his love grow for each new sport he tried.

During his eighth grade year at Newport Mill Middle School in Montgomery County, Battle fell headfirst into a brand new passion.

Battle grew up watching movies like every other kid, but after seeing the popular Quentin Tarantino film “Pulp Fiction,” it was unlike anything he had ever seen and he “fell in love.” He was immediately interested in how the movie was made, including how many people it takes to create such a memorable film.

Eventually, this passion led to Battle starting a filmmaking club at Albert Einstein High School with a friend.

While Battle did love sports, his plans were just to pursue collegiate football as a means to earn a degree in film and moving image. That is, until COVID-19 hit.

When the pandemic forced the 2021 football season to be pushed back as a limited spring season with only three scheduled games, Battle decided to use that time to focus on getting acclimated to the new college environment.

As a tremendous athlete not participating in sports, a friend on track asked him about potentially trying out for the team. Having a competitive attitude, Battle loved the thought of a new challenge and became quickly determined in pushing himself as a track athlete.

“I needed something to challenge me and knew I could do multiple things and didn’t want limit myself,” Battle said. “I knew I was strong enough to throw, I knew I was fast enough to run, and I knew I was agile enough to jump, which shows how all my previous sports are interconnected.”

After completing a few practices, Battle’s diverse talents led him in the direction of becoming a multi-athlete. He competes in the indoor heptathlon and outdoor decathlon, demonstrating his incredible range of skills. Such a wide range of skills requires an even deeper level of commitment as Battle must attend practices for each different skill.

Battle excelled through the difficult regiment, placing second in his first-ever heptathlon at the 2023 MAC Indoor Championship.

Balancing multiple events in track while pursuing his degree in film forced him to sacrifice elements of his social life, which not only  exposed his true determination love for the sport, but also his education.

In these stressful moments, he would distract himself by spending time on apps like TikTok and the up and coming film review app Letterboxd. Battle’s following slowly grew until he became somewhat of an influencer on both platforms with over 10 thousand followers.

Battle has seen success through his prior short films, winning Best Student Short Film for “Missing Figure” at the Baltimore International Black Film Festival. He then went on to win Best Student Male Director for his project “Lorraine” at the Independent Short Awards.

Going into his senior capstone class, Battle had a vision for a film with quality actors and knew he would need money to accomplish his overall goal and make his next vision a reality.

Battle created A GoFundMe page to raise money for his short film and was surprised to quickly raise the amount he set. It turns out Battle’s growing follower base of film-lovers look forward to his personal projects too.

Battle is currently “at a stalemate” as to what his next step is after he graduates, but he has a couple ideas stirring in the pot. His love for the East Coast is strong, applying to Columbia University in New York City for graduate school. Another option for Battle is The Gotham Film & Media Institute, also based in NYC, which helps filmmakers reach the next step in their careers.

Some of Battle’s prior work is available on his YouTube.

Battle’s long-term dream is to eventually receive an Oscar for a film.

“[I] want someone to have my film be their go-to film, it’ll be a cool experience and feeling.”

@jeremiah.battle