Board Member
Brief info
Jonathan Stack
Born and raised in New York City, Jonathan Stack is an Emmy Award winning and two- time Academy Award nominated documentary filmmaker. In 1991, he founded GABRIEL FILMS and has since gone on to produce over fifty films for dozens of cable channels in the US and many television partners abroad.
He has released several films theatrically and shown his work at many of the major festivals including Sundance where he won the Grand Jury Prize in 1998. While working as an independent filmmaker Stack has earned a reputation for his unique ability to gain access into forbidden and even dangerous worlds. His exclusives include, President Charles Taylor’s farewell speech to the nation of Liberia, a year in the presidency of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and a rare interview with David Miscaivage, head of the Church of Scientology.
He has documented life inside Louisiana’s notorious Angola Prison over 15 years, travelled with militias in Liberia and Sierra Leone and filmed in Harlem during the height of the crack addiction plight. He has filmed 10,000 feet below sea level and 20,000 feet above, told a few stories that took place thousands of years ago and even more stories that are happening today. Jonathan has mentored some of today’s most successful filmmakers and left behind a legacy of positive storytelling even in the most difficult of circumstances. He helped launch a filmmaker cooperative in Liberia, supported a Graduate Film academy in Haiti and started a prison television station in Angola, Louisiana. In 2013, now committed to combining traditional storytelling with cutting interactive media tooks, he founded World Vasectomy Day to inspire men worldwide to join in one of the most important decisions of our lives.
Today, with over 1200 providers in 50+ countries, it is the largest male focused family planning movement in the world. He recently joined Haiti’s organization, Haitian Educational Leadership Program to help launch Konbit Media, an in house production company that will produce media to achieve the organization’s objectives – leave a legacy of hope for future generations.