Jon Sumple

Jon Sumple is one of the three co-founders of j3FILMS, along with partners Jack Roth and Jamie Sernoff. Jon and Jack are the driving creative forces for j3FILMS, and the duo is responsible for cultivating the company's development opportunities. Jon also plays the role of producer, director and writer for j3FILMS projects, having done all three for the award-winning films, "Extraordinary: The Stan Romanek Story" (2013) and "Extraordinary: The Seeding" (2019). Jon began dabbling in visual storytelling in the late 1980s, submitting videos to the 1989 and 1990 Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival's (FLIFF) "Off the Wall" amateur video contest. His 1989 submission, an untitled five-minute short (edited on two VHS decks in his living room) followed the plight of an aging and aged hardcore punk band going on tour one last time (maybe) to help pay medical bills, earned acting awards for Lead Actress and Supporting Actor, and his 1990 submission, "The Relentless Pursuit of Stimulation" was a finalist for the "Off the Wall" best video. As fate would have it, Jon would return to the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival in 2013 for the world premier of "Extraordinary: The Stan Romanek Story," a documentary about a UFO abductee surrounded by controversy, which earned a Special Jury Prize at FLIFF. Jon and j3FILMS would return to FLIFF once again in November 2018 to debut a festival cut of "Extraordinary: The Seeding," a second film in an expected trilogy about alien abductions and hybridization programs. The film struck an emotional chord with audiences by flipping the script and focusing more on contactees and the emotional, physical, psychological and spiritual impacts that follow abduction experiences, rather than focusing solely on UFO and abduction phenomena. The film has been an official selection in 15 film festivals earning best documentary, best director and best producer recognition along the way. Jon also directed and produced the third film in the trilogy, "Extraordinary: The Revelations" (2021), which explores the history of ETs, three belief paradigms (colonization, ascension, biblical narrative), and government involvement through the eyes of military whistleblowers. The film has been an official selection of 9 film festivals, earning best documentary recognition and gold awards. The film will be released by 1091 Pictures on Nov. 30, 2021.