Thomas Cristofoletti

Ruom Collective

Documentary Cinematographer and Photojournalist

Thomas is an award-winning documentary cinematographer and photojournalist who has been based in Southeast Asia since 2012. Originally from the Italian Alps, he works between Bangkok and Phnom Penh, crafting human-centered stories that sit at the crossroads of climate change, development, and human rights.

He is the co-founder of RUOM, a multimedia collective dedicated to documentary filmmaking and investigative visual journalism. Over the past decade, Thomas has become deeply connected to the Mekong region, where his long-term work documents the environmental and social consequences of rapid development and shifting ecosystems.

His latest documentary, Strangled, follows three Cambodian families trapped in the country’s microfinance debt crisis, challenging the global narrative of microcredit as a tool for empowerment.

Thomas’s videos and photographs have appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, BBC, Bloomberg, and Der Spiegel, and have supported campaigns for WWF, USAID, UNICEF, UNEP, and The Obama Foundation.