His current film project Off and Running, which Jacob Okada shot and co-produced, premiered at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival. The feature documentary is directed by Nicole Opper and is slated to air nationally on the PBS series POV in 2010. Jacob has recently been DP on two works in progress, Macky Alston's The Truth Will Set You Free, about Reverend V. Gene Robinson, the only openly gay bishop in the Anglican Communion, and Nina Davenport’s upcoming movie about single motherhood. Jacob’s first film, Curtis, won an Honorable Mention at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. Curtis helped establish Jacob as a filmmaker when he was barely out of film school at NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Curtis also received a Warner Bros. grant and the Russell Hexter Filmmaker Grant, in recognition by his peers of Jacob's artistic merit and collaborative spirit. |
Other credits include work as assistant editor for Orlando Bagwell and Noland Walker on Citizen King, the two-part documentary about Martin Luther King, Jr's final years. The film was honored with a sold-out special screening at Sundance and aired nationally to much acclaim. Jacob was associate editor on New Year Baby, the groundbreaking film about a Cambodian family surviving the Khmer Rouge. The film won multiple awards at international film festivals and aired on PBS's Independent Lens in 2007. Jacob loves lighting, scriptwriting, and photography—skills that he hones, and that help him bring an unusual eye to his DP work and a unique vision as an up and coming director. Jacob is available to shoot and to collaborate on feature films in LA and New York. jacobokada1@gmail.com |