Anayansi Prado

Anayansi Prado is an award-winning documentary director and producer with over 20 years of filmmaking experience. Her work has focused on issues of immigration, indigenous land rights, race identity, education and other social and humanitarian issues. Anayansi's films have aired nationally on PBS and abroad, including her four feature films MAID IN AMERICA (2005, Independent Lens) 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 retirees migrating to Panama, and THE UNAFRAID (2018, America Reframed) about undocumented students in Georgia. Her films have screened at numerous film festivals including Tribeca Film Festival, Los Angeles Film Festival, Full Frame & Double Exposure.

Anayansi also directed and executive produced the Discovery en Español series VOICES OF CHANGE (VOCES DE CAMBIO) about humanitarian issues in the Latino community, which featured Carlos Santana and Edward James Olmos. She was one of the directors of AND SHE COULD BE NEXT, a two-part documentary series that follows a defiant movement of women of color as they transform politics from the ground up, filmed by a team of women filmmakers and executive produced by Ava DuVernay, Grace Lee, and Marjan Safinia. She’s directed and produced commissioned films and branded content videos for 23andMe and TedTalk.

Anayansi is a 2023 Concordia Studios Fellow, a 2022 Chicken & Egg Award Recipient, a Creative Capital Artist, a Rockefeller Media Fellow and a Film Expert for the State Department’s film diplomacy program the American Film Showcase. Her work has received support from 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. Anayansi has taught documentary filmmaking in 5 continents and was a visiting professor at UCLA's School of Theater, Film, and Television Graduate Program where she taught Advance Documentary Directing. She’s also taught at California State University, Northridge Journalism Dept. and Chapman University's Dodge College of Film and Media Arts. As a mentor and instructor, Anayansi has worked with various organizations and programs including Film Independent’s Documentary Lab and Global Media Makers program, Firelight Media Documentary Lab, Chicken and Egg Pictures Alumni program, and Sisters in Cinema’s Fellowship.

Anayansi holds a bachelor's degree in TV & Film Production from Boston University. Born in Panama, she resides in Los Angeles, CA.