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All Pictures (2)Biography
Damian John Harper was born in Boulder, Colorado in 1978. He studied anthropology and subsequently worked as an ethnologist in Oaxaca, Mexico. Following a stint as a cave diver in Brasil, Harper relocated to Germany, and in 2006, he enrolled at the Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film (HFF) in Munich where he focused on documentaries and commercials.
As a student, he completed several short and medium length fiction and non-fiction films which screened at international festivals. His 14-minute short "Teardrop" (2011) won the audience award at the Brooklyn Film Festival, as well as the award for Best Cinematography (for Friede Clausz) at the Sehsüchte Festival in Potsdam.
In 2012, Damian John Harper graduated from the HFF with his screenplay for "Los Àngeles", which relates the story of a young Mexican caught up between gang violence and traditional values. The following year, he shot "Los Àngeles" in Mexico and Germany, and the finished film premiered in the Forum section of the 2014 Berlin IFF. It went on to win several accolades, including the First Steps Award, the LA Muse Award at the Los Angeles Film Fest, and the awards for Best Feature Film Debut at the Biberacher Filmfestspiele and at the Guadalajara IFF.
In the spring of 2016, Harper began work on his sophomore feature film: Set in the US, "In the Middle of the River" tells the story of an Iraq war veteran who wants revenge for the violent death of his sister, but has second thoughts when he starts to talk with the alleged culprit. The film premiered at the 2018 Munich Film Festival, where Harper was awarded the Förderpreis Neues Deutsches Kino for Best Screenplay.