Jon Shenk

Jon Shenk is an Emmy-winning and Oscar-nominated documentary film director and director of photography, known for his films Lead Me Home Athlete A, An Inconvenient Sequel, Audrie & Daisy,The Island President, Lost Boys of Sudan. He is the co-founder, with his wife Bonni Cohen, of Actual Films, a documentary film company based in San Francisco, CA. He co-directed (with Pedro Kos) and photographed Lead Me Home which premiered in 2021 at the Telluride Film Festival, was acquired by Netflix, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject) in 2022.

Career
Jonathan Shenk was born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio where he graduated from Wyoming High School. He has a bachelor's degree (BA) from Yale University in English Literature and a master’s degree (MA) from Stanford University in documentary filmmaking. He has taught documentary filmmaking at University of California, Berkeley in the Graduate Documentary program.

Before founding Actual Films in 1999, he worked for Lucasfilm as the behind-the-scenes documentary filmmaker covering the making of Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace and directed the documentary The Beginning: Making Episode 1 (2001). He was awarded the 2004 Independent Spirit Award (Truer Than Fiction) for directing Lost Boys of Sudan (Shadow Distribution/PBS) which was also short-listed for an Academy Award. Shenk also served as the director of photography for the 2008 Academy Award-winning Smile Pinki (directed by Megan Mylan), and he won his first Emmy for Blame Somebody Else (Exposé: America’s Investigative Reports/PBS) in 2007.

In 2011, Shenk directed The Island President (Samuel Goldwyn Films/PBS), which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), and won the 2011 TIFF’s People’s Choice Award and The International Documentary Association’s (IDA) Pare Lorentz Award. In 2016, Jon co-directed (with Bonni Cohen) and photographed Audrie & Daisy which premiered in competition at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, was acquired by Netflix, and won a Peabody Award. He co-directed and photographed An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power (Participant Media/Paramount) which premiered on opening night of the Sundance Film Festival in 2017, was shortlisted as Best Documentary Feature for the 2018 Oscars, and was nominated for a 2018 BAFTA for Best Documentary. With Bonni Cohen, he co-directed Athlete A (Netflix) which premiered at the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival, and won a Grierson Award for Best Sports Documentary and an Emmy Award for Outstanding Investigative Documentary in 2021.

Filmography
Directed Features


 * Athlete A (2020)
 * Splash (2019, documentary short)
 * An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power (2017)
 * Audrie & Daisy (2016)
 * The Island President (2011)
 * Lost Boys of Sudan (2003)
 * The Beginning: Making 'Episode I' (2001)

Producing Credits


 * Freedom to Dream (2020, documentary short, executive producer)
 * Jaiquan's Sketch (2019, documentary short, executive producer)
 * Cooking for Life (2019, documentary short, executive producer)
 * Sounds of Life (2019, documentary short, executive producer)
 * Be Like Water (2019, documentary short, executive producer)
 * Drawn to the Mat (2019, documentary short, executive producer)
 * Just Breathe (2019, documentary short, executive producer)
 * Nature: No App Required (2019, documentary short, executive producer)
 * Splash (2019, documentary short, executive producer)
 * The Seer and the Unseen (2019, executive producer)
 * Melting Ice (2017, documentary short, co-producer)
 * Exposé: America's Investigative Reports (2007, series, producer, 1 episode)
 * Blame Somebody Else
 * The Rape of Europa (2006, producer)
 * P.O.V. (2004, series, producer, 1 episode)
 * Lost Boys of Sudan
 * Lost Boys of Sudan (2003, producer)
 * From Puppets to Pixels: Digital Characters in 'Episode II' (2002, producer)

Cinematographer Credits


 * Freedom to Dream (2020, documentary short)
 * Athlete A (2020)
 * Sounds of Life (2019, documentary short)
 * RUTH - Justice Ginsburg in her own Words (2019)
 * Just Breathe (2019, documentary short)
 * An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power (2017)
 * Audrie & Daisy (2016, director of photography)
 * A Kind of Order (2013)
 * American Jerusalem: Jews and the Making of San Francisco (2013)
 * The Revolutionary Optimists (2013)
 * The Battle of Amfar (2013, documentary short)
 * Eames: The Architect & The Painter (2011)
 * The Island President (2011)
 * The Burning Wigs of Sedition (2010, documentary short)
 * National Geographic Explorer (2005-2010, series, 4 episodes)
 * How Man Tamed the Wild (2010)
 * Journey to an Alien Moon (2010)
 * Nazi Mystery: Twins from Brazil (2009)
 * Pyramids of Fire (2005)
 * Through the Wormhole (2010, series, 1 episode)
 * Are We Alone?
 * Nourish: Food + Community (2009, documentary short)
 * P.O.V. (2009, series, 1 episode)
 * New Muslim Cool
 * Exposé: America's Investigative Reports (2009, series, 1 episode)
 * The People's Sheriff
 * Smile Pinki (2008, documentary short)
 * Undercover History (2007, series, 1 episode)
 * J. Edgar Hoover
 * The Days and the Hours (2006, documentary short)
 * Frontline (2006, series, 1 episode)
 * A Hidden Life
 * The Rape of Europa (2006)
 * Secrets of Revelation (2006)
 * The Human Behavior Experiments (2006)
 * The New Heroes (2005, series, 1 episode)
 * Power of Enterprise
 * Lost Boys of Sudan (2003)
 * Nova (2000, series, 1 episode)
 * Runaway Universe (2000)
 * Frozen Fisherman (1999)
 * Kofi Annan: Eye of the Storm (1998)

Awards

 * 2003 International Documentary Association Award Nominee, Feature Documentary, Lost Boys of Sudan (2003), shared with Megan Mylan
 * 2004 Film Independent Spirit Award Winner, Truer Than Fiction, Lost Boys of Sudan (2003), shared with Megan Mylan
 * 2005 News & Documentary Emmy Award Nominee, Outstanding Continuing Coverage of a News Story - Long Form, P.O.V. (1988), Lost Boys of Sudan (2003), shared with Sally Jo Fifer (executive producer), Cara Mertes (executive producer), Frances Reid (executive producer), Megan Mylan (producer)
 * 2005 News & Documentary Emmy Award Nominee, Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft: Cinematography, P.O.V. (1988), Lost Boys of Sudan (2003)
 * 2006 News & Documentary Emmy Award Nominee, Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft: Cinematography, The New Heroes (2005), shared with Banks Tarver (cinematographer) and Mitch Wilson (cinematographer)
 * 2007 News & Documentary Emmy Award Winner, Outstanding Feature Story in a News Magazine, AIR: America's Investigative Reports (2006), shared with Tom Casciato (executive producer), Scott Davis (senior producer), Peter Nicks (co-producer), Stephen Segaller (executive in charge)
 * 2011 DOC NYC Nominee, Viewfinders Grand Jury Prize, The Island President (2011)
 * 2011 Toronto International Film Festival Award Winner, People's Choice Award Documentary, The Island President (2011)
 * 2012 International Documentary Association Award Winner, Pare Lorentz Award, The Island President (2011), shared with Jon Else (executive producer), Bonni Cohen (producer), Richard Berge (producer)
 * 2016 Sundance Film Festival Nominee, Grand Jury Prize, Audrie & Daisy (2016), shared with Bonni Cohen
 * 2017 Cannes Film Festival Nominee, Golden Eye, An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power (2017), shared with Bonni Cohen
 * 2017 San Sebastián International Film Festival Award Winner, Greenpeace Lurra Award, An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power (2017), shared with Bonni Cohen
 * 2018 British Academy of Film and Television Arts Nominee, Best Documentary, An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power (2017), shared with Bonni Cohen
 * 2020 Critics' Choice Documentary Award Nominee, Best Director, Athlete A (2020), shared with Bonni Cohen