“It was a very lucky day when I connected with Jhova Media,” shares Grand Junction resident Linda Stout. Stout was commissioning a documentary on mental health and the challenges of finding adequate care in Western Colorado. When a friend passed her a card for Jhova Media, she emailed executive producer Herry Fuentes. Jhova’s creative director Jaden Quan returned the call and she felt an immediate connection. “I found that both of them have such maturity and emotional intelligence. It was a slam dunk when I got to know them and I have no doubt that they were the right filmmakers,” she says. The result was The Invisible Patient, which premiered at the Asteria Theatre in May 2025.

For Fuentes and Quan, The Invisible Patient was a challenge which made them experts on a crisis unfolding in real time when the region’s only residential mental health facility closed. Making the film was “a challenge because so much of it is abstract and nuanced,” explains Quan. “We had to tell the story without boring the audience and do right by the people who have this affliction and the people who are affected by that. It was like tightrope walking between two skyscrapers.”

If connecting with Jhova was one of Stout’s lucky days, the backstory on how Fuentes and Quan founded a successful film company in their early 20s also seems like a story of great luck. But calling it “luck” simplifies the ambition, drive and foresight with which both men pursue their dreams.

Jhova Media was founded by Fuentes in early 2023. A student at Colorado Mesa University (CMU) pursuing a double major in film and finance, Fuentes’ first move as a business owner was to send a text seeking partners in the company. “Only Jaden responded,” he laughs.

For Quan, a 2022 CMU graduate, the timing was perfect. “I was at a crossroads of where I wanted to take things. Then I get this text message, and it was like, if not now, then when?”

According to Fuentes, the early days of Jhova Media (which is a take on Fuentes’ middle name, not the Hebrew word for God), were “humble.” Fuentes shares that they pride themselves on “being able to make something great out of really not much. We made things that looked like they had more production value, but really, we were just stretching our limits and seeing what we could do.”

Finding work was another challenge. “We used a lot of front door strategies, where you knock on their door and ask ‘you want a video, here’s what we can do.’ But it’s those back door strategies that really work the best, those relationships that you’ve built over time, with your immediate community,” he explains.

Fuentes’ delineation between front door and back door strategies makes a lot of sense, and reflects knowledge gained at CMU and through the Eagle Valley Community Foundation’s Elevar program which provides business and leadership training. Through Elevar, Fuentes and Quan built a relationship with Mike Rushmore, co-founder of the foundation and its current chairman. Impressed by their work, Rushmore and philanthropist Ron Davis commissioned Jhova to craft a documentary showcasing resources and collaboration in the local nonprofit sector.

To give the film a narrative structure, Fuentes and Quan partnered with a family they met through Elevar who were starting a nonprofit called MAS Color to support and advocate for families with special needs children. To incorporate other nonprofit agencies into the story, Jhova pulled together a roundtable where these agencies shared their missions and advice. The result is One Valley, an overview of services within Eagle County seen through the context of one family’s lived experience. Filming for One Valley ended in April and it will be released in summer 2025.

Also premiering this summer is a documentary on the history of Colorado Mesa University, which marks its centennial in 2025. Jhova was brought into the project on the recommendation of the CMU marketing department, where both Quan and Fuentes worked during college. CMU’s President Emeritus, Tim Foster, is leading the project which will coincide with a book release and a year-long slate of celebratory events.

“It’s another beautiful, right place, right time kind of thing,” exudes Quan, reflecting on the privilege of telling his alma mater’s story. “It’s daunting for sure, because you can’t redo a 100- year anniversary. But it’s cool to be able to go to this college, develop an affection for it and give back to the school that put us in the position to start this business.”

After working with Jhova for over a year, Foster is impressed. “Those two young men are just so talented and the quality of work they put out is top-notch,” he shares. “There is nothing they can’t do.”

Sharing stories on screen is a task Quan and Fuentes take seriously. Reflecting on a culture in which everyone can create and curate a personality, Fuentes indicates that restoring sincerity is one of their goals. “We’re not looking to be quirky; we’re not looking to be cynical. These are people and these are their genuine stories. It’s what makes our formula for documentaries special.”

As for their own stories, Quan grew up fascinated by the “behind the scenes” aspects of film. He began making short movies, including Lego-based stop motion animation, as a child.

During high school, Quan witnessed an on-campus suicide. He shares that he processed this event by picturing it as a movie scene, a technique he’s used during other difficult times. “Maybe it’s some sort of coping mechanism, but that’s just how my brain works. I think the benefit of that is that I can transpose those experiences and that perception into creating something.”

As for Fuentes, he says filmmaking “makes me feel like I have control over not only my own story, but over how people see certain situations, how untold stories open up to people.” Fuentes shares that he can’t tell his story without telling something of his mother’s story, because she inspires him. His mother was a victim of severe abuse who left home, became pregnant and lived on the streets. But she also had a dream — to become a singer and radio personality — and she succeeded.

“Despite the difficulties she went through at a young age, she followed through. She still went on stage and sang her heart out, she still went on the radio,” says Fuentes with great pride. “And I thought to myself, I have many more resources than she did at my age and if I can’t make this Jhova thing work, then who am I?”

“I think what we do is really good, but we’re not at the top or anything. We are very much developing,” Fuentes says, assessing the company’s future. “I think people have high hopes for us and I think they hear our stories. And that, to me, speaks volumes.”

At one point during our interview, Fuentes referred to “luck being a principle of design,” meaning that well-executed deliberative actions create positive outcomes, which may appear as luck. Whether by luck or design, Jhova is elevating documentary film in Western Colorado and sharing stories with the potential to uplift us all.

Originally published in the summer 2025 issue of Spoke+Blossom.

More Than Luck: Jhova Media Elevates Filmmaking In Western Colorado