Jonathan Skurnik
Jonathan Skurnik has produced and directed award–winning, broadcast documentaries for more than 25 years. From exploring poverty and welfare reform in A Day’s Work, A Day’s Pay, to a funny and poignant portrait of a man coming to terms with his stutter in Spit It Out, to gender nonconforming children in The Family Journey, and transgenderism in Becoming Johanna, to a co-directed project that confronts the dark past of a federal Indian boarding school in South Dakota (The Thick Dark Fog), Skurnik's films are unified by compassion, community, and healing.
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Badger Creek
Directed by Jonathan Skurnik, Randy Vasquez • Documentary • 2017 • 27 minutes
Badger Creek is a portrait of a Blackfeet (Pikuni) family, the Mombergs, who live on the lower Blackfeet Reservation in Montana near the banks of Badger Creek. In addition to running a prosperous ranching business, the...
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Becoming Johanna (The Youth and Gender Media Project)
Directed by Jonathan Skurnik • Documentary • 2016 • 27 minutes
When Johanna, a 16-year-old transgender Latina, begins her transition and gets kicked out of her home and school, she finds a foster family who loves her and a supportive school principal who helps her graduate and thrive.
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A Day's Work, A Day's Pay
Directed by Jonathan Skurnik, Kathy Leichter • Documentary • 2001 • 58 minutes
A Day's Work, A Day's Pay follows three welfare recipients in New York City from 1997 to 2000 as they participate in the largest welfare-to-work program in the nation.
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The Family Journey: Raising Gender Nonconforming Children
Directed by Jonathan Skurnik • Documentary • 2010 • 14 minutes
Everybody wants to be loved unconditionally. But what do you do when your child tells you they're questioning their gender? The Family Journey: Raising Gender Nonconforming Children follows the journey of moms, dads and siblings of k...
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I'm Just Anneke (The Youth and Gender Media Project)
Directed by Jonathan Skurnik • Documentary • 2010 • 11 minutes
Anneke is 12. She loves ice hockey and is a hardcore tomboy. Everybody who meets her assumes she's a boy, but she's not sure if she wants to be a girl, a boy, or something in-between when she grows up.
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Spit It Out
Directed by Jonathan Skurnik • Documentary • 2005 • 57 minutes
Spit It Out is a funny and poignant portrait of Jeff Shames' successful efforts to come to terms with his stutter and his family's legacy of denial.
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The Thick Dark Fog
Directed by Jonathan Skurnik, Randy Vasquez • Documentary • 2013 • 57 minutes
Walter Littlemoon attended a federal Indian boarding school in South Dakota sixty years ago. The mission of many of these schools in 1950, was still to “kill the Indian and save the man.” The children were not allowed ...
