Profiles: Jaime Escallón Buraglia | Proimágenes Colombia

Jaime Escallón Buraglia was born in Toronto, Canada on September 4, 1977. He moved to Bogotá at the age of 4, where he grew up and began his studies. Escallón now directs and writes screenplays for film and television in Colombia and Canada, directing, writing and producing hundreds of hours of fiction and documentaries throughout the Americas. His films have participated in more than 50 international festivals and he has produced programming for Discovery Channel, National Geographic, ESPN, The National Film Board of Canada, Freemantle, Castaway, Cineflix and the CBC. His first film El jefe (The Boss) based on Antonio Garcia’s novel “Recursos Humanos”, premiered in Colombia and Argentina.
 
Escallón studied film and television at Colombia’s Universidad Nacional and was selected in 2004 for the NALIP Producer’s Lab and in 2007 for the NALIP Writer’s Lab. He also participated in the Talent Lab at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2005 and that same year was chosen for The National Film Board of Canada’s Momentum Program. His projects have on a number of occasions merited grants from Colombia’s Ministry of Culture, Bravo!Fact and the Ibermedia Program.
 
Escallón wrote TV series such as Caracol Televisión’s ”El amor es más fuerte” (1998), “La jaula”  (2003) and “Historias de hombres solo para mujeres” (2002); co-wrote on the late Jaime Osorio Gómez’s feature film Sin Amparo (2005); and wrote El jefe (2011).
 
He has directed franchised reality shows in Colombia such as “The X Factor” (second season - 2006), “Bailando por un sueño” (Seasons 1-4 – 2006), “Survivor” (Season 3 – 2007) and outside Colombia, “Person 2 Person” (2004), “Salsa on St. Clair Summer Specials” (2005), “Take this House and Sell It!” (Season 4-5 – 2007/ 2008), “Campus PD” (Season 1 – 2009) and “Norte a sur” (2010) for Discovery Channel.
 
Jaime began his film work as script and assistant director on Barbet Schroeder’s Our Lady of the Assassins. He recently wrote and directed several short fictions including Welcome (2005), Desayuno con el suicida (2006) and Drag (2007). He also directed the documentaries Soccer Fanatics: The Milan Tours (2004), Cuba Portraits (2005), Sanctuary (2005 – for the National Film Board of Canada’s Momentum Program), Not Paved With Gold (2007), El equipo del sol (2007), Alwyn (2009), Los hermanos Castaño (2009); and Fuga de las FARC (2008), 47 horas sin Chávez (2009), El rescate perfecto (2009), Sin cuartel (2010) and NarcoSubmarinos (2010) for the Discovery Channel and directed Tirofijo está muerto (2009) and Mineros de Chile: Enterrados Vivos (2010) broadcast by Nat Geo.