Maya Craig

Maya Craig is a Documentary Filmmaker and freelance Director of Photography based in San Francisco and working internationally. She has been a National Geographic Explorer since 2019 looking at the global climate and geopolitical impacts of a warming Arctic, a journey that has brought her to Alaska, Svalbard, Iceland, and across Europe to film with scientists, policymakers, and indigenous communities living and working at the forefront of climate change. As Director of Photography for Swiftwater Films, Maya has filmed for a number of documentaries focused on restoration in the Western US including Guardians of the River (EarthXFilm Impact Award 2021), Bring the Salmon Home (Jackson Media Awards nominee 2022), and The Lost Salmon (Emmy nominee PNW 2023). She is DP and Producer of forthcoming feature documentary Undamming Klamath, chronicling the largest river restoration project ever undertaken, currently underway on Northern California and Southern Oregon’s Klamath River. She is also a DP and Co-producer on feature documentary Laikipia, about conservation and pastoralism in Northern Kenya, which is currently in post-production and has been supported by Doc Society, Threshold Foundation, Sundance, and the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. Her first documentary Water Town, about a water privatization conflict in Northern California, was broadcast nationally on PBS and helped lead to the town securing its water rights after a five year legal battle. Maya brings a background in creative agency production, and has directed and shot brand collaborations with Patagonia, Google, Vogue, Vox, Freethink, CNN’s Courageous Studios and others. She is a fellow at London’s Royal Geographical Society, and holds an undergraduate degree in Environmental Science from Colorado College and a Master’s in Documentary Film from UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism.