Brenda Avila-Hanna

Brenda Ávila-Hanna is a filmmaker and educator from Mexico City who has lived in the CA Central Coast for over a decade. Her work has been showcased at HotDocs, Lakino Berlin, PBS, Fusion Network and more. Brenda was part of the inaugural cohort of DOC NYC’s “Documentary Industry New Leaders” and a 2021 Rockwood/Just Films Fellow. She is a member-owner of the film distribution cooperative New Day Films, where she served in the Steering Committee as their first team lead for Equity & Representation from 2019-2021. Brenda is also an active member of Brown Girls Doc Mafia, a co-director of the Video Consortium Mexico and has worked as a reviewer for film grants with multiple organizations including the IDA and BAVC. Brenda is a professor at UCSC, where she also received an MA in Social Documentation in 2013. Brenda is the Artist Development lead for the Watsonville Film Festival with their Cine Se Puede filmmaking fellowship. Brenda is currently a producer for the ITVS supported film Emergent City (Dir. Kelly Anderson/Jay Sterrenberg) and the Colombian-American film How to Clean a House in 10 Easy Steps (Dir. Carolina Gonzáles). She is also in post-production of her first documentary feature, Libertad, about an indigenous, transgender woman from rural Mexico living in California and transforming communities on both sides of the border as a healthcare expert and advocate.