Written and directed by Jon Kauffman, Heartlock, his debut feature film, is a rogue love story centered on a female prison guard whose life is turned upside down by the fleeting affections of her lover — a male convict whose charm is only as genuine as his desire to be free.

Selected for IFP’s Narrative Lab, Heartlock was released in the US in select theaters and online in 2019; it is also being distributed internationally in select territories, including the UK and China.

Loosely based on the biblical story of Cain and Abel, Storm Up The Sky follows the splintering relationship between the two eldest sons of a Hasidic patriarch (Richard Masur). Where one son, Caleb (Dan Pfau), enforces his father’s imposing system of beliefs, the other, Aaron (Dan Shaked), defies it.

‍Storm Up The Sky  was Jon Kauffman's graduate thesis film from Columbia University's MFA film program.

It was an Official Selection at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival, 2011 NewFilmmakers NY, 2011 Santa Fe Independent Film Festival, 2011 Gold Coast International Film Festival, 2010 Austin Film Festival, 2011 Washington D.C. Independent Film Festival, and was a semi-finalist at the 2010 Angelus Student Film Festival.

The film received numerous grants, including one from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), and was featured on NY1 as part of the City of New York’s NYC Life Television series, “Columbia Cinema: New Short Films from Columbia University School of the Arts."