Anayansi Prado is an award-winning Latina documentary filmmaker and educator born in Panama and raised in the US from the age of 13. Her independent productions focus on issues of undocumented immigration, indigenous rights and race identity, and have aired nationally on PBS. Her feature documentary work includes Maid in America (2005), about Latina domestic workers in LA; Children in No Man’s Land (2008), about unaccompanied immigrant minors crossing the US/Mexico border; Paraíso for Sale (2011), about American developers migrating to a rural island in Panama; and The Unafraid (2018), about undocumented students in Georgia. Anayansi is 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 The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Ford Foundation: Just Films, Chicken & Egg Pictures, ITVS Development Fund, The Fledgling Fund, Latino Public Broadcasting, Paul Robeson Media Grant and Pacific Pioneer Fund. As an educator, she’s taught at various educational institutions including UCLA’s Film School, Chapman University and Cal State Northridge; as well as documentary filmmaking workshops across five continents. Anayansi holds a BS degree in TV & Film Production from Boston University. She resides in Los Angeles, CA.

Current Projects

Anayansi is currently working on an Untitled Uvalde Documentary, supported through a 2022 Chicken & Egg Films Critical Issues Grant.