Arts Division
Professor
Faculty
Latin American & Latino Studies
Dolores Huerta Research Center for the Americas
Art Department
Communications Building
X
By Appointment
Film and Digital Media
John Jota Leaños is a Mexican/Italian-American and Chumash interdisciplinary artist, documentary animator, and social art practitioner whose work engages the intersections of history, memory, and power through a social justice lens. A Guggenheim Fellow in Film and Media, Creative Capital Artist, and United States Artist (USA) Fellow, Leaños' practice spans a range of media, including documentary animation, video, public art, installation, and performance. His work disrupts dominant narratives by offering alternative perspectives through strategic social documentation and symbolic intervention.
Leaños' animation films have been featured internationally at over 100 film festivals and museums, including PBS.org, the Sundance Film Festival, Cannes Film Festival, Morelia International Film Festival, and New York’s Lincoln Center. His animated works have garnered numerous awards, such as Best Short Documentary at Dance Camera West, El XicanIndie Premio Mayor for Most Outstanding Film at XicanIndie Film Festival, and Best Animation at the Cult Critic Movie Awards. Additionally, his films have been recognized at festivals like the New Port Beach Film Festival, Lost River Film Festival, Cucalorus Film Festival, and the San Diego Latino Film Festival.
A professor in the Department of Film and Digital Media at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Leaños’ installation work has been exhibited at prestigious venues such as the Whitney Biennial, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, and others. His installations, including El Muertorider, a lowrider media installation, have challenged viewers to engage with cultural histories from fresh perspectives.
Leaños' Ghostly Labor: A Dance Film, co-directed with Vanessa Sanchez, exemplifies his commitment to community-engaged work. The film, produced in collaboration with ALAS, a farmworker advocacy organization, highlights the resilience of laborers along the U.S.–Mexico border through a blend of Tap, Mexican Zapateado, and Son Jarocho. Ghostly Labor has been featured at the Dance on Camera Festival at Lincoln Center, Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival, and several international dance festivals, winning numerous awards and resonating deeply with diverse audiences.
His ongoing commitment to exploring Indigenous histories, resilience, and resistance is reflected in his animated documentary series, "Prayers for Redress," in the traveling exhibition Contemporary Ex-Votos: Devotion Beyond Medium, a video installation focused on the traumas of Indigenous children in U.S. and Canadian residential schools.
Documentary Animation
Social Documentary & Social Practice
Chicanx and Latinx Film, Art and Popular Culture
New Media & Techno-Culture
Public Art, Installation & Photography
Documentary Animation History and Production
Social Documentary Practice
New Media & Social Practice
Latina/o Popular Culture
2024
- San Francisco Arts Commission Impact Grant
2023
- Dance Camera West Film Commission for the film *Convivencia*
2021
- Kenneth Rainin Foundation New & Experimental Works Program for dance, theater, and media project *Ghostly Labor*
- National Performance Network (NPN) Production Grant
2020
- Virginia Dares Cinematic Art Awards for Decolonizing / Re-Indigenizing Media
- Isadora Duncan Dance Award (Izzie Award): Special Achievement Award for Outstanding Production for *Pachuquísmo*
2019
- California Arts Council, Community Arts Engagement Grant
2018
- California Humanities, California Documentary Production Fund
- San Francisco Arts Commission, Individual Artist Commission
- San Francisco Foundation Bay Area Documentary Fund
2017
- YBCA 100, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
- Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation (MAAF) Award
2012
- Latino Public Broadcasting Public Media Fund
- Guggenheim Fellow
- National Association for Latino Arts and Culture (NALAC) Artist Award
2011
- United States Artist Fellow
- San Francisco Arts Commission Individual Artist Grant
2010
- Irvine Foundations Creative Connections Grant
2009
- The MAP Fund Grant
2007
- Creative Work Fund Award
2002-03
- Center for Arts and Society Fellowship, Carnegie Mellon University
2002-11
- Creative Capital Grantee
