Jason Jaacks

Jason Jaacks is a filmmaker, photographer and National Geographic Explorer who’s focused on social and environmental issues. During his career, he has ducked the border into Mexico with traditional leaders of the Tohono O’odham tribe, spent a year documenting a Native American spoken word team and led a source-to-sea expedition down the state of Washington’s Elwha River. He has produced television for National Geographic, a web series for PBS Digital Studios and video shorts for The New York Times. Jaacks’ film Silent River (2014) follows a young woman as she defies death threats to save one of the most polluted rivers in Mexico. With his colleague Anand Varma, he directed the short film In Search of Zotz (Mountainfilm 2016) and Border Nation (Mountainfilm 2020).