Print Jonah Gercke grew up in a theatrical family, where both of his parents run local theater companies: Francis Gercke of Backyard Renaissance in San Diego and Kristianne Kurner of New Village Arts in Carlsbad.
But for the 22-year-old Gercke, who uses the pronouns they/them/theirs, film was always their first and only passion. At age 9, they could recite from memory the weekly film national box office tallies. And after graduating from high school in Carlsbad, they filmed a documentary on teen relations in Israel and the West Bank that earned the budding filmmaker a 2018 Genius grant from OZY Magazine.