When Almudena Carracedo arrived at the UCLA Film School in 2000 to work on her doctoral dissertation on U.S.–Mexico border documentaries, she found much in California and surrounding areas to catch her filmmaker’s eye. A recent arrival to the United States herself, from Madrid, Spain, she was especially drawn to the experiences of immigrants.

An early target of her director’s lens was the border town Tijuana, profiled in Welcome: A Docu-Journey of Impressions, which won a Sterling Award for best short documentary film at the AFI/Discovery Channel’s Silverdocs International Documentary Festival, and Special Mention of the Jury at the Mediafest International Film Festival. Her first feature-length documentary, Made in L.A., brought Carracedo even greater recognition. In tracing the story of three Latina immigrants who labor in the garment sweatshops of a trendy L.A. women’s clothing retailer and their three-year campaign to secure basic labor protections, Carracedo put a memorable human face on an issue too often relegated to media soundbites and then quickly forgotten. Made in L.A., which premiered in 2007 on the PBS series POV, received widespread critical acclaim and won numerous awards, most notably an Emmy and a Henry Hampton Award for Excellence in Film and Digital Media by the Council on Foundations.

Carracedo is the 2008 recipient of the National Association of Latino Independent Producers’ ESTELA Award, and is a recent fellow of NALIP’s Latino Producers Academy.

Awards and Accomplishments

• Sterling Award, Best Short Documentary Film, AFI/Discovery Channel’s Silverdocs International Documentary Film Festival
• Emmy Award, Made in L.A.
• Henry Hampton Award for Excellence in Film and Digital Media, Council on Foundations, Made in L.A.
• National Association of Latino Independent Producers’ ESTELA Award (2008)
  Fellow, NALIP’s Latino Producers Academy