JR Heffelfinger

Jonathan Heffelfinger, professionally known as J.R. Heffelfinger, is an American filmmaker, writer, director, producer, artist and musician. He was born on July 9, 1980, in Manhattan, New York. He is best known for his debut film, "Niji No Shita Ni," “Segundos” and "8:15 Hiroshima." He aims to give a voice to the voiceless, make the invisible visible, unveil hidden truths about the human condition. He won the Webby Award in 2013 and has been featured in prominent industry publications and magazines such as Variety, NHK World News, Finance Yahoo, AP News, Modern Times, Philippine Times, and Cultural News.
==Early life and education==
J.R. Heffelfinger grew up in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and is of Puerto Rican heritage. He was accepted into the P.S.6 gifted program in Manhattan, and invited to attend The Juilliard School from 1994-1996, where he studied trumpet, world music, music theory, cinema, classical performance, and jazz performance. In 1998 he then graduated from the F.H. LaGuardia High School for Music, Art, and the Performing Arts. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Boston University, where he studied film theory, production, and English literature.
==Career==
Before beginning his career as a director and producer, Heffelfinger worked as a story development assistant at Spike Lee’s 40 Acres & A Mule Fireworks Inc., a language teacher at Noval Language School in Tokyo, and a writer’s assistant for Hope & Faith season 3 at ABC/Touchstone.
In 2002 J.R.Heffelfinger moved to Tokyo, Japan and taught English at the Nova School. While there he wrote the screenplay for “Niji No Shita Ni” (Under The Rainbow). “Niji No Shita Ni” had its world premiere at the 28th Mill Valley Film Festival and was reviewed as "being touched by the spirits of Kurosawa and Imamura and resonating with the resilient glow of life.” The film was reviewed by Variety where JR was noted as "an emerging talent".
In 2007 he was a founding member of Saber Seven Inc. / dorthy.com, a social network to connect like-minded dreamers to realize their goals. While there he served as a multimedia producer documenting the life of the start-up. He later joined Moving Pictures in 2009 as a producer, where he created and directed videos and other media content for Pfizer and Wyeth, two pharmaceutical companies that merged in 2009.
In 2011 J.R. Heffelfinger joined Howcast Media where we worked as a script-to-screen producer / director / editor. Howcast was listed as Time Magazine’s Top 50 Website from 2011-2014. While there he directed and produced over 2,000 video titles which have generated over +250 Million Views to date and won a 2013 Webby Award for "How to Kiss" series which went viral.
In 2014 JR Heffelfinger produced segments for Al Jazeera America “America Tonight” program. Most notable is a segment on Fredrick Brennan which aired on 9/12/14.
In 2015, J.R. Heffelfinger also worked as a senior producer/director for About.com, where he directed and produced "Brooke Alexander: The Best Job For You," and as a senior producer for online video at B&H Photo Video, where he researched, booked, filmed, and interviewed the world's best professional photographers, filmmakers, audio engineers, and storytellers to create engaging, insightful, and informative content for the "Prospectives" and "Behind The Scenes" series.
He founded Runaway Horses in 2016, a story-driven creative development and production company that creates branded content and films that blur the lines between nonfiction and fiction. He has worked as a director with many well-known companies and groups such as Disney, Facebook, Moderna, Marotta Controls, Alex Woo, Sephora, Amazon Aid, Hope to Haiti, and Avenues The World School.
In 2020, J.R. Heffelfinger directed the film "8:15 Hiroshima," produced by Akiko Mikamo, the daughter of a hibakusha (nuclear bomb survivor). The movie tells the true story of a Japanese man who survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945 and the subsequent discrimination he faced. The film won the audience award at the academy award qualifying Nashville Festival in 2020, released theatrically by Shin Nippon Film and will air on PBS in 2023.
==References==
==External links==
* Company website
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* JR Heffelfinger on YouTube
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* JR Heffelfinger on IMDb
Category:1980 births
Category:American filmmakers
Category:American writers
Category:American directors
Category:American producers
Category:American artists
Category:American musicians