Ana Maria Jessie Serna
Colombia
Filmmaker, Visual Anthropologist, and Historian.
Specialized in Governance, Human Rights, and Peace Culture. She has six years of experience in developing documentaries and social and community research, focusing on Black and Indigenous women and LGBTQ+ individuals, among other communities.
She creates audiovisual pieces that tell the stories of Black and Indigenous People, queer and trans individuals, and community theories through processes of collective healing, human rights, and historical memory.
She has won significant national and international awards for her research and community work, such as the Best Caribbean Documentary at FAMMA 2019 and the Contar lo Nuestro 2020 Award for Best Documentary with her film “Fishing Her: Mujeres de Sal.” She was a Chevening Scholar and earned her master’s degree in Visual Anthropology from the University of Manchester, UK, with a Merit Award. Her latest documentary, “Because I Know How Beautiful My Being Is,” premiered worldwide at the Pulling Focus African American Film Festival of The Quad Cities in 2023, USA, and won the award for Best Student Film.