Juan Paulo Laserna
Juan Paulo Laserna is a Colombian screenwriter, director and producer. He grew up in Bogotá, Colombia, after which he moved to Beijing, China, to pursue Mandarin Studies at Beijing Language and Culture University. He majored in film directing at the School of Visual Arts in New York and graduated with honors, winning several awards, including best editing, directing and best film for his first feature length project, Las Malas Lenguas. The film would premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival and go on to have a theatrical release in Colombia and on STARZ in the US. His stories utilize magical realism and dark humor to develop contemporary dramas and crime narratives related to immigration. Juan Paulo is currently seeking his MFA in Film in the graduate program at Columbia University. He was awarded the Sloan Screenplay Competition award for his story on the indigenous rehabilitation of the land during the war in Colombia, as well as the KOB grant for his thesis film, Not My Name.