Stephen Apkon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Stephen Apkon is founder of the Jacob Burns Film Center, author of the book The Age of the Image, and has directed two films, Disturbing the Peace (2016) and There Is Another Way (2025), which focus on members of Combatants for Peace.
Apkon is a native of Framingham, Massachusetts.[1] He has an MBA from the Harvard Business School and worked as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs.[1][2] He left Wall Street to pursue his passion for film.[3] In 1993, he and his family relocated from Manhattan to Pleasantville, New York, and he noticed that there was a desire for a diverse film experience in Westchester instead of having to travel into New York City.[3]
Jacob Burns Film Center
He founded the Jacob Burns Film Center in 2000,[2] not only to bring a venue for film viewing and discussion to Westchester but also to create a family-oriented, community-based space, that emphasized educational programming and visual literacy education.[3] Seeing a disconnect between his children's classroom and the world they were growing up in, he became drawn to digital literacy.[2] He led the organization from 2001-2013.[1]
The Age of the Image
In 2013, Apkon published The Age of the Image: Redefining Literacy in a World of Screens.[4] The book traces the evolution of visual literacy from cave paintings to YouTube, offering both a personal perspective and a foundation suitable as a textbook for an introductory college course.[5] He explores the idea that images and film are the most powerful and engaging forms of text people have developed.[6] The book covers brain science related to vision, the persuasive use of imagery in advertising, and the narrative potential of visuals, drawing a parallel between the grammar of film and the grammar of written language.[6]
A core message of the book is the need for visual literacy in education.[7] This literacy is rooted in decoding non-verbal messages.[8] Apkon notes that as the culture becomes more global, communication continues to rely on words, but increasingly those words are paired with powerful visuals, and it's the images that linger in our memory. He points out that images have long shaped public perception, often more than facts, citing the 1960 Kennedy-Nixon debates, where Nixon's disheveled appearance overshadowed his performance, while Kennedy tapped into a deeper, emotional response in viewers.[8] The book also highlights the educational programs at the Jacob Burns Film Center, which teach teenagers to interpret and create visual stories. Apkon argues that one's understanding of literacy must evolve to match how people now learn and communicate—through screens and images as much as or more than traditional books.[6]