Ayana Baraka was the Director of Photography for UNCHARTED, a vérité music documentary featuring Alicia Key’s She Is The Music-music camp, premiering at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival. Baraka was also the Director of Photography for BEHIND THE CURTAIN: ECLIPSED, starring Lupita Nyong’o and Danai Gurira, which documented the ‘herstoric’ Broadway production of “Eclipsed.” Her work as contributing cinematographer can be seen in the Oscar hopeful, THE HUNTING GROUND, Emmy nominated film, UNITED SKATES, and AFTERSHOCK, which premiered at Sundance 2022. Baraka was named a ‘person on the rise’ in Hollywood by director-producer Mel Jones. She is the recipient of the Innovative Storyteller Award from Nashville Film Festival, Culture Catalyst Award from the Digital Diversity Network, and Best Cinematography Award from the Victoria TX Independent Film Festival. Additionally, she is a voting member for the Emmy’s. Baraka holds membership in both the IATSE Local 600 and IBEW as a Director of Photography.
Baraka is the creator of GREENWOOD AVENUE: A VIRTUAL REALITY EXPERIENCE. It is used as an educational tool to teach Black History in NYC, Chicago, LA, and Tulsa through partnerships with the Chicago Bulls, Oklahoma City Thunder, TechRow, and RedFlight Innovation sponsored by Russell Westbrook. Baraka’s foray into immersive storytelling came while attending USC’s School of Cinematic Arts for her MFA. She joined a team of innovators at USC's Mixed Reality Studio, a Siggraph winning team for creating photo-real animation in virtual reality. Baraka went on to become a 2018 YouTube VR Creator Fellow, 2018 Oculus Connect Fellow, and a 2019 Black Public Media 360+ Incubator Fellow.