Juliana Ruhfus was born and raised in Germany. After finishing her schooling she found work with the Goethe Institute in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, where she began studying Swahili. A year later she moved to the UK to study for a degree at the School for Oriental and African Studies (University of London).
Her knowledge of Africa landed her work in television and once given the opportunity to develop and produce a series called ‘Investigating Asia’ (Diverse Productions/ BBC, 1997) Juliana had also become hooked on investigative work. Over the following years she continued working in TV, contributed to the Small Arms Survey, and spent a year working for the Environmental Investigation Agency, an NGO that specialises in undercover investigations of environmental crime.
In 2010 she was awarded with the Dart Centre Ochberg Fellowship for coverage of violence and trauma. A year later Juliana received a scholarship for the Harvard Global Mental Health program and she has since joined as a director on the board of the Dart Centre Europe. All this has compounded her long-standing interest in making films that don’t just explore facts, but also people’s experience of their environment, and the subjective perceptions that so frequently lead to the continuation of conflict.
Outside television Juliana has written for newspapers including the Guardian, The Times and Die Welt (Germany).
Links:
Juliana Ruhfus op LinkedIn
