Hawk Jensen

Director

Adam Hawk Jensen is an award-winning journalist, writer, producer, director, editor, teacher, artist and activist with over 20+ years as a journeyman Los Angeles filmmaker. He has spent the last decade focused on documentary films within the human rights advocacy and human freedom communities.

EARLY CAREER
Hawk got his film industry start working in the trenches of commercial productions (Riot House, Epoch Films, The Hayes Office, Straw Dogs) and on music videos (Moby, Li’l Kim, Atomic Kittens). His work in the early 2000s included: PA, production coordinator, set photographer, location manager, location scout (Local 399) and 2nd unit director. Working in parallel on several independent feature films, Hawk became a 2nd assistant director, 1st assistant director, and associate producer.

Breaking into studio feature films and television, he progressed through the creative ranks as an assistant to the director on Bubble Boy (Bandeira/Touchstone) and Fearless (Jerry Bruckheimer/Warner Bros), as title sequence producer and SFX unit producer on Push, Nevada (LivePlanet/ABC), and as writers’ room assistant on What About Brian (Bad Robot/Warner Bros).

CREATIVE CAREERWorking with a writing partner and representation by CAA and Magnet Management, Hawk began screenwriting full time in 2006. He sold an original one-hour pilot script to Warner Brothers (2008) and won a writing award from the DGA and WGA (associate member) for an original half-hour comedy script (2008).Seeking storytelling more meaningful than mainstream entertainment, Hawk became a full-time documentary producer, director and journalist with Reason TV (2009). There he produced dozens of short films advancing human rights and freedom and won a Southern California Journalism Award and Nomination with Radley Balko and Zak Weissmuller for work advancing photographers’ rights.Hawk founded his own production company, Smock Media, in 2012. Through Smock, Hawk led or collaborated on many projects for organizations such as Digicel, Freethink Media, Human Rights Foundation, The Moving Picture Institute [MPI], The Institute for Humane Studies, Cuba Decide, and the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation [VOC]. In 2012, Hawk edited and co-produced his first feature film documentary, Honor Flight (2012), produced by Freethink Media. Amongst its many awards and public accolades, Honor Flight premiered in front of a Guinness World Record film screening audience of 28,422 people.

RECENT ENDEAVORS
Working with VOC, Hawk currently directs an award-winning short documentary series called The Witness Project (2015-2021) that tells the stories of individuals who have triumphed in the face of state oppression.

In partnership with MPI, Hawk created an annual workshop called The Mindful Editor (2015). Now in its sixth year, this immersive workshop teaches mindfulness techniques to help film professionals combat “editor burnout.” Sponsors have included DaVinci Resolve, Runway, and The Post Group.

Hawk founded HawkFilmWorks in 2020 to further his career as a narrative film and music video director. He directed and co-executive produced an original music video, Drive Through Fire, for the band Wall of Tom. Previously he edited and post-produced the music video, Tornado (2019), for Wall of Tom.

Hawk story-consulted on the feature film documentary, What Killed Michael Brown? (2020), starring Shelby Steele and directed by Eli Steele.

Winning a grant from the Atlas Network, Hawk is in pre-production on an original podcast called Chances Are that deep dives into criminal justice reform.

Hawk co-founded a dissident artist network in 2021 called SoundMind Creative, which is producing a new docu-series entitled Follow The Science: Lockdowns Go Viral. Hawk is attached as the director.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/follow-the-science-lockdowns-go-viral-premiere-hosted-by-tom-woods-tickets-499005527967

EDUCATION
Adam Hawk Jensen received a B.A. in International Political Economy from The Colorado College with a minor in German.