Children in no Man’s Land

CCNMA/NAHJ Student Chapter at CSUN presents the second session of the debate series “Ethnic Media and the Power of Documentation”. Q&A with Anayansi Prado, director of the documentary Children in No Man’s Land after the screening of the film.

The event will take place at Flintridge Room (USU 2nd floor) on October 28 at 12:30 pm.

CHILDREN IN NO MAN’S LAND is a documentary that uncovers the current plight of the 100,000 unaccompanied minors entering the United States every year. This film gives this timely political debate about the U.S./Mexico border a human face by exploring the story of Maria de Jesus (13) and her cousin Rene (12) as they attempt to cross the U.S./Mexico border alone to reunite with their mothers in the Midwest. Focusing on minors crossing through the Sonora Desert area in Nogales, Arizona, this film explores every detail of these children’s journey as well as the journeys of other children we meet on the way. We uncover in an intimate and personal way where they are coming from, what their journeys have been like, and how they’ve gone about making the United States of America their new home.

An award winning documentary filmmaker, Anayansi Prado was born in Panamá and moved to the United States as a teenager. She later attended Boston University where she received a B.A. in Film. Her debut documentary, MAID IN AMERICA, about the lives of Latina immigrant women working as domestic workers in Los Angeles, screened nationally on the PBS Independent Lens series and in over 40 film festivals in the U.S. and around the world including: The Full Frame Film Festival, The Los Angeles Film Festival and The Havana Film Festival in Cuba.

In 2008, Anayansi completed her second independent production, CHILDREN IN NO MAN’S LAND, about the 100,000 unaccompanied immigrant minors crossing the U.S./Mexico border every year, which premiered at the Guadalajara International Film Festival. In 2007, Anayansi served as an executive producer on the Discovery en Español seriesVoces de Cambio, about humanitarian issues in the Latino community, which featured Carlos Santana and Edward James Olmos.

Prado is founder of Impacto Films, a production company geared toward the production of documentaries with a social impact. Continuing with her vision of film and visual arts as powerful tools for social impact, she recently founded The Impacto Project, a non-profit organization dedicated to the empowerment of indigenous youths and their communities through hands-on training in photography, filmmaking, and digital media.