Photo credit: Hilda Mercado
An award-winning documentary filmmaker and an educator, Anayansi Prado was born in Panama and moved to the United States as a teenager. She attended Boston University where she received a B.A. in Film. Her debut film Maid in America (2005), an award winning documentary about the lives of Latina domestic workers in Los Angeles, screened nationally on the PBS Independent Lens series (2005-06).
In April 2018, Prado release her latest independent feature documentary, The Unafraid, about DACAmented students in the Georgia, a state that bans undocumented students from attending their top public universities and from qualifying for in-state tuition. She produced and co-directed the film with fellow documentary filmmaker Heather Courtney. The Unafraid premiered at the Full Frame Film Festival where it was awarded the Kathleen Bryan Edwards Human Rights Award. The film will broadcast nationally on America Reframed/PBS Fall 2019.
Other productions include, Children in No Man’s Land (2008) about unaccompanied minors crossing the US/Mexico border broadcast nationally on PBS World Channel and is part of the State Department’s American Documentary Showcase. Children in No Man's Land screened in over 30 countries around the world and won multiple awards including Best Film by the Center for Mexican American Studies and Research.
Her third documentary, Paraiso for sale (2011) about a rural island in Panama and the impact that the migration of American retirees and developers is having on the local indigenous community was broadcast nationally on PBS. The film received numerous film festival awards and earned a 2012 Imagen Award nomination for Best Documentary, TV or Film. Anayansi also served as an executive producer on the Discovery en Español series Voces de Cambio, about humanitarian issues in the Latino community, which featured Carlos Santana.
Anayansi is a Creative Capital Artist, a Rockefeller Media Fellow and her projects have received support from The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Ford Foundation - Just Films, Independent Television Services (ITVS), Latino Public Broadcasting (LPB), The Pacific Pioneer Fund, The Paul Robeson Media Fund, The Fledgling Fund, Chicken and Egg Pictures, Tribeca Film Institute and the U.S. Department's Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs.
In 2017, Anayansi was a Visiting Professor at the UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television where she taught Advanced Documentary Directing in the graduate school program. She's also worked as an Adjunct Professor at California State University, Northridge, Journalism Department and at Chapman University's Dodge School of Film & Media Arts. Since 2009, Prado has worked with the State Department’s Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs as an Film Expert for the film diplomacy program The American Film Showcase. Through AFS, she’s taught filmmaking workshops and presented her work around the world including Venezuela, China, Jordan, Mozambique, Burma, Angola, Nicaragua, France, Colombia, Peru, Bosnia, Singapore, Panama and Paraguay.
When not traveling for work or fun, Anayansi calls Los Angeles, CA home.
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In April 2018, Prado release her latest independent feature documentary, The Unafraid, about DACAmented students in the Georgia, a state that bans undocumented students from attending their top public universities and from qualifying for in-state tuition. She produced and co-directed the film with fellow documentary filmmaker Heather Courtney. The Unafraid premiered at the Full Frame Film Festival where it was awarded the Kathleen Bryan Edwards Human Rights Award. The film will broadcast nationally on America Reframed/PBS Fall 2019.
Other productions include, Children in No Man’s Land (2008) about unaccompanied minors crossing the US/Mexico border broadcast nationally on PBS World Channel and is part of the State Department’s American Documentary Showcase. Children in No Man's Land screened in over 30 countries around the world and won multiple awards including Best Film by the Center for Mexican American Studies and Research.
Her third documentary, Paraiso for sale (2011) about a rural island in Panama and the impact that the migration of American retirees and developers is having on the local indigenous community was broadcast nationally on PBS. The film received numerous film festival awards and earned a 2012 Imagen Award nomination for Best Documentary, TV or Film. Anayansi also served as an executive producer on the Discovery en Español series Voces de Cambio, about humanitarian issues in the Latino community, which featured Carlos Santana.
Anayansi is a Creative Capital Artist, a Rockefeller Media Fellow and her projects have received support from The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Ford Foundation - Just Films, Independent Television Services (ITVS), Latino Public Broadcasting (LPB), The Pacific Pioneer Fund, The Paul Robeson Media Fund, The Fledgling Fund, Chicken and Egg Pictures, Tribeca Film Institute and the U.S. Department's Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs.
In 2017, Anayansi was a Visiting Professor at the UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television where she taught Advanced Documentary Directing in the graduate school program. She's also worked as an Adjunct Professor at California State University, Northridge, Journalism Department and at Chapman University's Dodge School of Film & Media Arts. Since 2009, Prado has worked with the State Department’s Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs as an Film Expert for the film diplomacy program The American Film Showcase. Through AFS, she’s taught filmmaking workshops and presented her work around the world including Venezuela, China, Jordan, Mozambique, Burma, Angola, Nicaragua, France, Colombia, Peru, Bosnia, Singapore, Panama and Paraguay.
When not traveling for work or fun, Anayansi calls Los Angeles, CA home.
DOWNLOAD RESUME