Jacob Hayek

Native-born Brooklyn, New Yorker Jacob Hayek is one of the next wave of new film makers, driven to frame their visual works as opportunities to reconsider the context of uncomfortable or unpopular contemporary issues in a way that reconnect us all to the greater human condition. A graduate of the New York Film Academy, Hayek majored in filmmaking, learning everything from directing, cinematography and editing to producing and screenwriting. His first two pieces were comprised of shorts-a music story about three friends who grew up and parted ways as one of them reminisces about old times, and an adaptation of Edger Allen Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart. Hayek's first major film, which gained interest from a growing number of film festivals-and even got a call from Netflix-is The Jim Crow Holocaust. Originally written as his graduate project, Hayek's intent for this film is to open a window for examining a number of current fears and perceptions concerning immigration and prejudice from a variety of perspectives and beliefs. It then asks the audience to arrive at their own conclusions based solely on what it means to be human. Hayek currently resides in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, where he has lived for the past 16 years.