JP Olsen is a filmmaker, writer, journalist, and musician. He is co-author of The Narcotic Farm, published by Abrams, and his work has appeared in the New York Times, PBS, CBC, and BBC. His independent films seek to create work existing outside the world of information and rejects the assumed necessity to create clear and orderly narratives that ignore the half-truths and oddities of daily life.
His work—made with creative partner, Kristen Nutile—has shown at Marfa Film Festival, Big Sky Documentary Film Festival and The American Documentary Film Festival, as well as dozens of other festivals around the world. Olsen is an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning filmmaker and a director of original programing at HBO. As a musician, he was composer in residence at Byrdcliffe Colony.
At MacDowell, Olsen and Nutile scripted, edited, and completed a short experimental documentary entitled Stan that will appear in a number of international film festivals.
