Episode #115: Listen Courageously to the WHY Behind the Story with Juliana Tafur

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Juliana Tafur is an award-winning filmmaker and workshop creator devoted to using films to facilitate experiences that promote understanding and foster human connection. She has been on a listening journey for the past four years. First, as she produced/directed the documentary “List(e)n” and later as she created the Listen Courageously movement. Now, she facilitates workshops on the power of navigating our differences through listening, alongside her team. She runs Orkidea Films which is at the intersection of filmmaking, movement-building, and workshop training.

Juliana’s Background

Juliana’s life experiences have naturally led her to the work she does today. She’s Colombian-American, and her family moved from Colombia to the United States seeking political asylum when she was 15. She was not able to go back to Colombia until twelve years later. During her college years at Northwestern, where she studied Journalism, she did an exchange in Egypt and later went back to do a story on the Sudanese refugees in Cairo.

This was the beginning of her career in documentary filmmaking. Juliana has traveled across the world finding the human side to every story for most of the major cable networks – but notably National Geographic and Discovery. She’s profiled some of the most resilient individuals in the Americas, like people who live off recyclables in the biggest trash dump in Guatemala City, and lived under extreme conditions for productions in Peru’s guano islands, the Amazon rainforest, and the Uyuni Salt Flats – to name a few. Juliana Tafur’s films use psychology as a means to understand the world, drawing on her own upbringing by two psychologists.

Orkidea Films

https://www.orkideafilms.com/ 

Orkidea Films specialize in the creative development and execution of documentaries and series with societal impact. Their mission is to use the power of a good story. With over 15+ years of expertise in TV and filmmaking, they bridge worlds, ignite action, and bring about change. Their films are known to spark movements with social impact virtual programs offered across universities, organizations, and corporations. 

List(en) Courageously Film

https://listencourageously.com/thefilm/ 

List(e)n (80 minutes) invites people with opposing viewpoints on some of our most divisive issues – guns, abortion, and immigration — to listen to each other. The documentary features participants whose personal lives deeply intertwine with the topics, including one of the survivors of the Parkland, FL school shooting.

“List(e)n revealed how by ‘seeing’ our ‘enemies’ eye-to-eye, our judgment can dissolve, and we can heal our divides and mend our hearts. Listen Courageously, in turn, has shown that our perceptions don’t identify us and that as humans we can strive for meaningful connections, regardless of what may ‘separate us’. Recognizing that the ‘us vs them’ mentality hasn’t served us is the first step to long-lasting change.” ~Juliana Tafur

Pitch for “List(en)”

List(en) Courageously Workshops

Listen Courageously is an immersive virtual workshop designed to make people more aware of their listening blocks and better able to engage in heart-centered conversations that lead to understanding. During the workshops, we use the documentary as a listening and engagement tool. Inspired by our methodology for conflict mediation, we invite participants to work on their own listening skills, in small groups, with our trained facilitators.

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Juliana Tafur is an award-winning trilingual content director and journalist committed to using the power of film to generate consciousness about some of the most pressing issues of our time. Through her 15 years in the industry, she’s worked as Executive Producer, Content Director,  Story Producer, and Scriptwriter for Discovery, National Geographic, BBC, History, and A&E.

She most recently supervised the work of producers across Latin America on more than 150 hours of television as Supervising Producer for Discovery Networks International (Discovery Channel, Home & Health, Animal Planet). Her work for Discovery’s Home & Health ‘Mi Estilo, Tu Estilo’ was awarded a Bronze World Medal for ‘best lifestyle series’ at the 2017 New York Festival’s TV & Film Awards.

In 2019, she had her directorial debut with LIST(e)N – a feature-length documentary that highlights our common humanity amidst the growing polarization in the U.S. The film had had its theatrical premiere at Regal Cinemas in Los Angeles, has screened at prestigious festivals like the Miami Film Festival’s 37th edition and the Sarasota Film Festival’s 22nd edition, received multiple awards (Accolade Global, ImpactDocs, IndieFest), and is starting a worldwide *virtual* film tour to incentivize listening and understanding.

Juliana is an honors graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, who’s been recognized with multiple industry awards, including a Mark of Excellence Award from the Society of Professional Journalists – with a passion for impact storytelling and a track record of spearheading programs that entertain, inspire and educate.

Juliana’s Contact Information

juliana@orkideafilms.com
Filmmaker | Workshop Creator | Founder

listencourageously.com | orkideafilms.com
LinkedIn | Twitter | FaceBook | Instagram
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