Jacob Stebel

Program Director, GFS NY

Jacob Stebel is a teacher, writer, photographer, and producer from Long Island, NY where he spent his teenage years and early twenties working on public access shows, and managing an arthouse movie theater, while writing and acting in several short films. After co-writing and producing the no-budget feature Freaks, Nerds & Romantics, a story about the unraveling of a punk band and their local music scene, he finished his BA in English at Stony Brook University, graduating Summa Cum Laude before getting his MA in English Education at Columbia University’s Teachers College.

After graduating, Jacob brought his enthusiasm for working with young people and his love of writing to The Cinema School, the first public high school in the nation to require four years of study in narrative filmmaking. A strong partnership with Ghetto Film School developed, as Jacob contributed to four years of International Thesis Films, serving as script advisor and on-location production support to the Fellows in Stockholm, Sweden (2014) and A Coruña, Spain (2015). His work with students has been featured on ABC7, PIX11, & NY1 News, and written up in The Atlantic.

After nearly a decade of teaching in the South Bronx, Jacob joined GFS New York full time as Program Director, and has been delighted to take the reins of the 30-month curriculum, while helping to shape and enhance the Fellows’ overall experience. With over 100 GFS productions completed so far under his tenure, including International Thesis Films shot in Iceland, The Dominican Republic, and Vancouver, Jacob is excited to help usher in the next 25 years of Ghetto Film School. When he’s not working, he’s spending time doting on his wife and infant daughter.