NJ Silva
- Director
- Editor
- Writer
NJ Silva was born in Lisbon, Portugal. Since a very early age, he
seemed to be attracted by the moving images. The love of writing is own
stories started when he was around 5 years old. The desire to tell
stories to people made him desire a career in journalism. When he was
13 years old, NJ wrote his first ever screenplay, it was called "The
Highschool". It was a 20 minute short film that described his state of
mind in his surroundings. Casting his own friends as actors and
convincing one teacher to help with the production, NJ directed his
first ever short film at the age of 13. Unfortunately the film was
never completed, but the filmmaking bug inside him was born. Only when
he finished high-school he realized that journalism didn't satisfy his
ever-growing imagination. At the age of 17, and after applying and
being accepted in a major university in journalism, NJ enrolled in the
film course at Universidade Lusofona. Discovering his own potential as
a storyteller, he realized that film education in Portugal wasn't
enough for his ambitions. In 2006 he decided to do a one month
intensive course at the prestigious London Film Academy in the UK. It
was during this month that he decided to make "Drops of a Soul". After
returning to Portugal, NJ had only one thing in his mind, to make a
professional short film. Only in December of 2007 his goal was reached.
"Drops of a Soul" was shot at the end of 2007 and it was shown for the
first time in Lisbon on February 14th, 2008. After making this short
film, NJ returned to the London Film Academy to undertake the one year
course. It was during this time that he directed two other short films,
"Puny Earthlings" his first ever comedy with Charlotte Coy and Marco
Costa, and "Yael" a World War II film starring Nadia Malamud and
Steffan Boje.