Maya Montañez Smukler heads the research and study center at the UCLA Film & Television Archive. She began her career in film as an assistant to director Allison Anders on the film Grace of My Heart (1996); and went on to work for the American Film Institute’s Directing Workshop for Women and Women Make Movies; and starting in 2015 has conducted oral histories for the Visual History Program at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science. Since 2002, Maya has been a lecturer in the School of Media Studies at the New School. In addition, she taught film and television studies at Otis College of Art & Design, the New York Film Academy, and UCLA. Her audio commentary is available on Olive Films’ Blu-ray of Elaine May’s film A New Leaf.
