Jonathan Stack, Producer

As a teenager, Jonathan Stack went with his family to live in a small village in southern Spain. He later traveled and lived in the Andes, the Amazon and back to Spain. Jonathan found gainful employment as an elementary school teacher in East Harlem, a seltzer delivery boy, a waiter, a translator, and then a job at the Margaret Mead Film Festival that he co-curated from 1984-88. Yet nothing was quite right. Finally, after watching thousands of documentaries Jonathan figured he could make them as well as critique them, but without any technical aptitude his only option was to produce and direct. A career was born. During the ensuing eight years Jonathan has been busy. He started his own company, GABRIEL FILMS and began making films with filmmakers and international television partners from the U.K. and the U.S. During this time he has made over 20 films that have been broadcast on PBS, A&E, Discovery Channel, Channel Four, the BBC, Swedish, Australian, French, German television, and most everywhere else. His first effort took him to Estonia where a nation was emerging from a half century of Soviet domination. With the support of the BBC, he produced One Generation More, about the resurgence of Jewish culture in Estonia. A psychic foretold that the film needed to be made because it would allow the subjects to find freedom. As predicted the main characters left Estonia to come to the States. He also predicted the film wouldn¹t be a 'masterpiece'. He was right there as well. Since then Jonathan's career has blossomed. The highlights include his 1991 documentary about arts censorship in the U.S., directed by Paul Yule. Damned In The USA engraged notorious religious crusader, Reverend Donald Wildmon of the American Family Association who then chose to sue Jonathan. Wildmon lost the lawsuit. The film won the International Emmy for Arts Documentary.