Born in Hunan Province and raised in small-town upstate New York, May Wanhua Braaten is a filmmaker, artist, and educator based in Brooklyn, New York on unceded Munsee Lenape land.

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Braaten is a freelance independent filmmaker. Her work is contemplative, and often thickly autoethnographic, pursuing unlikely subjects and threads of connection. A proud member of Brown Girls Doc Mafia and the Asian American Documentary Network, she is deeply and personally committed to diversifying and democratizing the industry. When she isn't dreaming up (and producing) odd films about spotted lanternflies or Appalachian folklore, Braaten is teaching high school students at BASIS Independent Brooklyn. Her courses include a capstone in French & Francophone cinema and intermediate French language.

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Braaten graduated summa cum laude from Skidmore College in May 2024 with a B.A. in Philosophy.