Next person biography:
Anayansi Prado is a renowned documentary director and producer with a career spanning over two decades. Her extensive experience in filmmaking has enabled her to tackle a wide range of social and humanitarian issues, including immigration, indigenous land rights, race identity, education, and more. Her work has been showcased nationally on PBS and internationally, featuring four feature films that have garnered significant attention and acclaim.
Maid in America, her 2005 film, explores the lives of Latina domestic workers in Los Angeles, while Children in No Man's Land (2008) sheds light on the plight of unaccompanied immigrant minors crossing the US-Mexico border. Paraíso for Sale (2011) delves into the experiences of American retirees migrating to Panama, and The Unafraid (2018) tells the story of undocumented students in Georgia. These films have been screened at various prestigious film festivals, including the Tribeca Film Festival, Los Angeles Film Festival, Full Frame, and Double Exposure.
In addition to her feature films, Anayansi has directed and executive produced the Discovery en Español series Voices of Change, which focuses on humanitarian issues within the Latino community and features notable guests such as Carlos Santana and Edward James Olmos. She was also a director on the two-part documentary series And She Could Be Next, which follows a movement of women of color as they transform politics from the ground up. This project was executive produced by Ava DuVernay, Grace Lee, and Marjan Safinia.
Anayansi has also worked on commissioned films and branded content videos for 23andMe and TedTalk. Her impressive credentials include being a 2023 Concordia Studios Fellow, a 2022 Chicken & Egg Fellow, a Creative Capital Artist, a Rockefeller Media Fellow, and a Film Expert for the State Department's American Film Showcase. Her work has received support from various organizations, including the Sundance Documentary Fund, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, The Ford Foundation: Just Films, Chicken & Egg Pictures, Tribeca Studios, ITVS Development Fund, The Fledgling Fund, Latino Public Broadcasting, and others.
As an educator, Anayansi has taught documentary filmmaking on five continents and has held visiting professor positions at UCLA's School of Theater, Film, and Television, California State University, Northridge, and Chapman University's Dodge College of Film and Media Arts. She has also served as a mentor for the Film Independent Documentary Lab, Firelight Media, and Sisters in Cinema.
Born in Panama, Anayansi holds a bachelor's degree in TV & Film Production from Boston University and currently resides in Los Angeles, California.
