Operating on the belief that everything under the sun is deeply connected in concrete ways, my work combines personal history with interdisciplinary research to bridge seemingly disparate struggles, histories, and images. Rooted in experimental modes of nonfiction storytelling and image-making, my work often draws on sonic-visual collage, archive, and non-linear narrative structures to honor the complexity, context, and dignity of those represented. I want my work to be a rigorous yet accessible tool that compels compassion and fosters coalition-building for a more equitable reality. I believe the best way to do this is to make work that deconstructs and challenges dominant understandings of identity, solidarity, and ethics of care.

Bio

May Wanhua Braaten is a filmmaker, media artist, and educator born in Zhuzhou, China and raised in the rolling green hills of small-town Upstate New York. Braaten’s work invokes visual-sonic collage, authoethnography, research, and formal experimentation to challenge dominant modes of nonfiction storytelling; artist Angus McCullough has described her work as not high-, nor low-, but “no-brow.” Braaten’s films have been screened as a part of the SUSTAIN Film Series, the Mellon Foundation for the Arts Research Initiative, and the John B. Moore MDOCS Storytellers’ Institute, in addition to community screenings and exhibitions. She earned her B.A. in Philosophy from Skidmore College in 2024, and is a proud member of the Asian American Arts Alliance (A4), Asian American Documentary Network, and Brown Girls Doc Mafia collectives.

Braaten is currently a full-time educator, developing and instructing courses in French language and French and Francophone cinema at BASIS Independent Brooklyn. She is based in Brooklyn, NY on unceded Lenape land.