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maya@mayasantos.com

Maya Santos is a Documentary Filmmaker specializing in place-based multimedia projects, Architectural Designer and advocate for cultural space .

Graduating with a Bachelor of Architecture from Washington State University in 1999, Maya found her way to filmmaking through her passion for multi-media presentations with isangmahal arts kollective, a Seattle-based interdisciplinary arts group.

Maya’s first film was "Fonogra(Ph)x" (2001), a hip hop documentary and multi-media performance featured in the 2002 Northwest Asian American Film Festival. "to transgress: a meditation" (2006), her first experimental documentary, appeared in the 2007 Frameline 31 SF International Film Festival and 2006 Cinemanila International Film Festival. She began her directorial debut with Sustainable Media Studio, most notably with "A Conversation" (2010), which featured in the 2011 Architecture Film Festival Rotterdam, 2011 Film Independent Short Fix Program and 2012 Architekturclips in Berlin, Germany.

Since founding Form follows Function in 2011, Maya has collaboratively directed and produced 30+ short documentaries and seven installations, including Virtual Reality (VR) documentary "Walking with Grace" (2016) & VR animation "Bronze, Brass, Jazz" (2017).  As Curator/Project Director of three multi-media exhibitions for the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, "The Space Between" (2009), "Interactive Little Tokyo!" (2016) & "Bronzeville, Little Tokyo" (2017), Maya's scope includes immersive media and site-specific community engagement.

While serving as Place-based Project Consultant for Little Tokyo Service Center (LTSC), Maya's work includes the launch of +LAB, a creative community development strategy of LTSC, "Takachizu", a Little Tokyo treasure-gathering project with Artist, Rosten Woo and #MYFSN, a neighborhood effort to preserve Historic First Street North through community arts and engagement with Sustainable Little Tokyo.

Maya was an adjunct Professor teaching Community Impact Media, in partnership with Hauser & Wirth, at California State University Television Film and Media Studies from 2020-2022. Maya currently manages Building for Equity, a capital funding program at 4Culture supporting equitable cultural space in King County, Washington.