ABOUT
Tom Laffay is a director, DP and visual journalist specializing in long term documentary investigations in Latin America. Living in Central America and Colombia since 2011, he covered violence against environmental and human rights defenders over the course of Colombia’s troubled peace process and works extensively in the Northwest Amazon. Tom studied political science and Latin American studies at the College of Charleston having lived and worked with migrant farmworkers in the Carolinas and worked as a translator at a rural medical clinic. His work as a filmmaker and journalist aims to bridge impact with underreported and complex issues of social and geopolitical significance in our Americas.
He is 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. He was awarded a 2021 Online Journalism Award for Best Medium Format Documentary for his work covering the Siona indigenous nation clearing landmines from their ancestral territory. Tom is bilingual (English / Spanish) and travels extensively producing documentary films for organizations like New Media Advocacy Project and IUCN in South America, Africa and the US. Since 2011 he’s been a member of La Isla Network to advance improvements in the agricultural labor sector in Central America. His film Nos Están Matando (They’re Killing Us) was screened to the US Congress, The United Nations in Geneva, Cinema Política in Montreal, as well as in community and grassroots settings after a viral open source release.
His work has been featured by International Crisis Group, The New Yorker, TIME Magazine, National Geographic, VICE World News, ARTE, The Guardian and InfoAmazonia, among others and he has reported for the Colombian national newspaper El Espectador as a photojournalist. He’s a recipient of the inaugural 2020 Andrew Berends Fellowship and is currently producing his first feature film together with the Siona Indigenous Nation of Putumayo, Colombia.
Tom is currently based in Bogotá, Colombia and available for assignments in the Americas and just about anywhere else.
Contact: tplaffay@gmail.com
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