Mariana is a biologist, photographer and filmmaker born in Medellin, Colombia. She has lived in various countries including USA, England, Philippines and Australia where completed a Diploma in Filmmaking at the New York Film Academy, Gold Coast.

Mariana had the opportunity to grow up in close contact with nature as well as to work closely among indigenous communities in the Colombian and Peruvian Amazon. It was here where she discovered the profound and powerful connection between the local people and their natural environment. Since then,  with a devoted desire to inspire others to protect our natural resources, Mariana has deeply explored the relationships that exist among human beings and nature from its most basic aspects of food and construction to its more complex relations of art, cosmology, self-awareness, and ultimately, how nature defines the origin and endurance of any culture. This search has led Mariana into diverse and often contrasting ideas of concepts such as culture and identity which she sees as a way of understanding social constructions as well as a path towards self-exploration.

​

In 2017, Mariana wrote, directed and filmed Trap, a documentary which exposes the devastating environmental impacts of shark nets in Queensland, Australia. In 2018 she directed Forests of Peace, an online documentary series regarding the war victims in Colombia and how to these communities might find a new path through reforestation of native forests.

​

Some of her works have been displayed in galleries and museums, most recently as part of the audiovisual exhibition "Dialogues and Explorations" in Medellin, Colombia and has been published in Magazines such as Carma Journal in Colombia and London. Her film Trap is still in the phase of postproduction yet has already been invited to festivals such as Screen It Festival in Australia.