Stephen Apkon

STEPHEN APKON

“The Age of the Image: Wayfinding in a World of Screens”

October 14, 7:30 pm 

YouTube streaming link: https://youtu.be/LSLEyD313Fg 

Stephen Apkon is the author of the critically acclaimed book, The Age of the Image: Redefining Literacy in a World of Screens, and the Founder and Executive Director of The Jacob Burns Film Center, a non-profit film and education organization located in Pleasantville, N.Y. The JBFC presents a wide array of documentary, independent and foreign film programs in a three-theater state-of-the-art film complex and has developed educational programs focused on 21st century literacy. Since its doors opened in 2001, JBFC education programs have reached over 100,000 children, and under Steve’s leadership, the JBFC inaugurated a 27,000 square foot Media Arts Lab in 2009.

In The Age of the Image, Apkon draws on the history of literacy, on the science of how storytelling works on the human brain, and on the value of literacy in real-world situations, and argues that now is the time to transform the way we teach, create, and communicate so that we can all step forward together into a rich and stimulating future. Legendary director Martin Scorsese writes in the Foreword to the book. “The Age of the Image lays out the tools we need to cultivate our awareness of and attention to every message and every gesture, artistic or opportunistic, expressed in print or in pixels. It's not just a plea for literacy, but a wonderful road map and guide for how it can be taught and nurtured.”

Apkon’s recent work as Director, Producer and Executive Producer includes the documentary films, Fantastic Fungi, Backyard Wilderness and Disturbing the Peace. Steve serves on the boards of The World Cinema Foundation and Advancing Human Rights. He is President of Big 20 Productions; the director and producer of The Patron, a collaboration with Ido Haar; a producer of Enlistment Days, directed by Ido Haar; and a producer of I’m Carolyn Parker: The Good, the Mad, and the Beautiful directed by Jonathan Demme.

Sponsored by the QEP, the First Year Writing Program, the ICCA School of Communication and the Honors Program.

Published on October 14, 2021