Artist Bio

Jon Fine is a filmmaker and musician. His work is as far reaching and diverse as his interests. Throughout the years he’s fluidly moved between producer, director, DP, editor, record producer and composer. Jon’s currently directing a documentary about Wayne Shorter & Esperanza Spalding entitled “Optimistic Chaos”. Recently he edited “Seeking Mavis Beacon” for Neon and Rudy Valdez’s “Places”, and shot the docu series “Choir” for Disney +, and “Castle St” for OWN/ Discovery. Since 2012, Jon’s directed 10 years of PBS broadcasts of UNESCO’s Jazz Day filmed in Istanbul, Havana, St Petersburg, Osaka, Paris, NY, Melbourne, and Washington DC. These annual televised concerts have included the historic US-Cuba co-production hosted by Will Smith & Quincy Jones broadcast live from a makeshift control room in the basement of the Gran Teatro, the logistically complex US-Russia coproduction of “Jazz Day: Live from the Mariinski Theater” and “A Conversation with Bill Clinton” filmed in DC.

The concerts have featured Stevie Wonder, Tony Bennett, Chaka Khan, Lizz Wright, Joss Stone, Ravi Shankar, Ledisi, Hugh Masekela, Annie Lennox, Gregory Porter and Sting. From 2010-2017, he worked as the lead editor with Apple’s notoriously secretive Media Arts Lab in Cupertino California on dozens of their iconic launch films introducing the world to iPhone, iPad, Facetime and Siri. At Apple, he edited “Designed by Apple” the only short film they’ve ever released about Jony Ive’s Industrial Design Studio and the first ever spots for FaceTime & Siri. For the 2015 World Expo, Jon edited a 200 screen video installation for architect Daniel Libeskind’s Vanke pavilion. He’s consulted with Google’s Empathy Lab on a series of videos exploring A.I., cut spots for Gap, PUMA, Clinique, UNIQLO, Jameson, Jagermesiter and Barney’s and produced shorts for the Rainforest Alliance, Amazon Aid, The California Academy of Science, PBS All Arts, and Bono’s (RED). Jon co-wrote and edited “The House on Coco Road”, produced by actor/activist Danny Glover about the US invasion of Grenada, he filmed Carlos Santana’s historic ‘Peace Tour’ in Nagasaki and Hiroshima and 1 shot, edited and co-produced the award-winning film “Still Bill” celebrating songwriting legend Bill Withers.

He spent over a year filming the creative process of Jazz masters Herbie Hancock & Wayne Shorter in “Possibilities”, and produced and edited “River of Gold”, Sarah Dupont’s feature documentary on illegal gold mining in Peru featuring war photographer Ron Haviv. His footage of the unlawful arrests of over 300 anti-war protesters during the 2004 RNC led to a landmark lawsuit and formed the backbone of “The Afterparty”, an award winning documentary he co-wrote and produced featuring Barack Obama and Andre 3000. As a composer, he scored an Emmy nominated short for the Atlantic, produced a country wide musical health campaign to combat malaria in Benin with UNICEF & Angelique Kidjo and wrote and produced the music for Holy Forest an acclaimed album recorded with artists from the US & The Gambia. Jon currently lives in upstate NY with his wife and two kids.