Tom Laffay

Tom Laffay is a visual journalist, director and DP specializing in documentary investigations in Latin America. Based in Colombia since 2016, he’s been covering the ongoing violence against human rights defenders throughout the country's troubled peace process and issues facing the Amazon. While studying political science he lived and worked with migrant farmworkers in North Carolina, inspiring him to understand and communicate the socio-economic interweaving of the Americas. He’s a member of RISC combat medical training class XVII and a recipient of a Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting grant for investigating mercury trafficking in the Guiana Shield. Tom reports for the Colombian national newspaper El Espectador and has published films with The New Yorker, NatGeo and The Atlantic. He is bilingual (English / Spanish) and travels extensively producing documentary films for organizations like La Isla Network and IUCN. His film Nos Están Matando was screened to US Congress, The UN, Cinema Politica Montreal, and community settings after a viral, open source release. Recently he’s begun working as a DP on narrative documentary films and is passionate about collaborating with other creative professionals, particularly in Latin America. He’s currently producing his first feature doc together with the Siona indigenous nation of Putumayo, Colombia.