Jonathan Stack

Jonathan Stack is a multiple Emmy Award-winning and two-time Academy Award® nominated documentary filmmaker. He has written, produced and directed over 25 films and 50 television programs including Sundance Grand Jury prize winning THE FARM: LIFE INSIDE ANGOLA PRISON.  His work has been distributed throughout 100 countries by networks including HBO, BBC, A&E, Channel 4, the Discovery Channel and National Geographic Channel.   

Recently, he has overseen and developed educational programs that combine filmmaking and advocacy such as: production workshops in social media at the Cine Institute in Haiti; a film cooperative that trains and hires Liberian filmmakers and a prisoner run television production company and network at Angola prison. In each instance, Jonathan is acutely aware of using ‘media assets’ to build audience and energize political campaigns.

Nicolas Cuellar

Nicolas Cuellar, is a film and video director, editor and producer. He has directed over 30 short films for which he has received several awards and worked on over 20 feature documentaries, both in production and post-production. He is a teacher at the Cine Institute in Jacmel, Haiti and field director at CINE CERVICES, a haitian production company. Nicolás has partnered with Jonathan Stack since 2009. He oversees all post-production and has directed its biggest projects since 2011. Nicolas graduated from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia with a philosophy degree and was a recipient of the Brett Ratner Grant for the Two-Year Conservatory Filmmaking Program at The New York Film Academy.

David B. Deniger

David B. Deniger, launched Highest Common Denominator Media to harness the universal power of storytelling to captivate viewers around the best of our human nature. He serves as Founder, Executive Producer and Photographer at Highest Common Denominator Media. HCD Media has produced films for National Geographic, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation through the Sundance Foundation, the Discovery Channel and his personal photographic work has featured landscapes, wildlife and documentary stills including work in China, Peru, Bolivia, India, Turkey and the U.S.. Mr. Deniger is the Chairman of Hyphen Solutions, is on the Board of Directors of the Naval Postgraduate School Foundation, and the Nature Conservatory of Texas.

Catherine Fontenot

Catherine Fontenot has served 20 years for the LA Department of Public Safety and Corrections. Starting at the “top a tower guard and working her way down,” from Corrections Cadet at a state medium security prison to Assistant Warden of Programming at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, Ms. Fontenot is a believer in moral rehabilitation. “Offenders want to be clean, safe and know they are paid attention too – whether their actions are good or bad, they need to know that others care about what they are doing.” 

Catherine Fontenot is responsible for bringing the theater play “The Life Of Jesus Christ” to Louisiana State penitentiary. It was her idea to include female inmates to play the women roles and reached out to HCD Media Group.

Nathan Burl Cain

Warden Burl Cain, Louisiana State Penitentiary

Since 1994, Burl Cain has been the Warden of Louisiana State Penitentiary (LSP), Louisiana’s largest maximum-security prison. He s as well Regional Warden over Elayn Hunt Correctional Center, Winn Correctional Center, and Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women.  Once known, as the “Bloodiest Prison in America,” under Warden Cain’s nearly 20-year leadership LSP has become one of the safest, most secure and progressive maximum security prisons in the nation.  

As Warden of the nation’s largest “Lifer” and maximum security prison, he has implemented innovative and constructive programs for the inmates under his charge that have managed to encourage hope in this seemingly “hopeless” environment.  Since his tenure at LSP, he has founded the Joan Horner Center of the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary at Angola, 6 Chapels, LSP Museum, KLSP TV Station, established an award winning Hospice Program, expanded the world famous prison rodeo and arts & crafts show, overseen a widely respected, self-sustaining agricultural system and obtained release from one of the longest prison Court Ordered Consent Decrees in US history.  His common sense and human approach to effectively managing a correctional facility has led to him being nationally recognized as a leader in his field, and to the prison receiving unprecedented print and televised media exposure. 

Sean Vaughn

Sean Vaughn came to Louisiana State Penitentiary (Angola) in 1998 as a first time offender serving a life sentence for murder. He is the Producer/Director at LSP-TV, Angola’s closed circuit television station. He has produced numerous training and instructional videos for Angola, the Louisiana Department of Corrections, and the Louisiana Department of Probation and Parole and has appeared in programs such as MSNBC’S Lockup: Inside Angola, and The Farm: 10 Down. In 2010 Sean directed and edited a movie short for the 100 Black Men of Metro Baton Rouge entitled Hard Times, which shows young people the consequences of making bad decisions. To date, schools, churches, community organizations, and law enforcement agencies throughout Louisiana are using Hard Times in an effort to break the cycle of incarceration. The award-winning documentary Serving Life, an Oprah Winfrey Network original, is another of Sean’s accomplishments, where he is listed as one of four directors of photography. Through his work, Sean endeavors to shed light on the lives of incarcerated men and women in Louisiana. His hope is that the public will come to understand even though these men and women have made mistakes, they are still humans—people –- who need forgiveness and deserve another chance at life.