Jake Hochendoner (he/him) is an award winning filmmaker, video producer and educator living in Dallas, Texas. His first feature film FIREBOYS premiered at the 2021 Dances With Films Festival and is now streaming on MAX. His creative and professional work is driven and informed by a deep passion for social and environmental justice aimed at building a more equitable, inclusive and healthy world. His award winning short documentary films have focused on complex social issues, ranging from mass incarceration (100 Second Chances) to the opiate epidemic (ALL IT TAKES), have screened around the country at the Cleveland International Film Festival, The Wrap’s Shortlist Film Festival in Los Angeles and the Impugning Impunity Human Rights Documentary Film Festival in New York City. In 2016, Jake received a Creative Workforce Fellowship from Cuyahoga County to support his filmmaking and teaching in Northeast Ohio prison, which led to the development of FIREBOYS. In 2018, he won a New England/Boston Emmy award for producing and co-directing “Meet the Inmates of Fife & Drum” for Zagat.