Campus Directory

Pronouns he, him, his, his, himself

Division Arts Division

Department/College/Unit Film and Digital Media Department

Title Assistant Professor

Affiliation Faculty

Other UCSC Campus Affiliation Dolores Huerta Research Center for the Americas

Faculty Type Regular Faculty

Areas of Expertise Documentary Film
Documentary Studies
Film
Television
American Cinema
Screen Acting and Performance

Web Site

Primary Office Location Digital Arts Research Center
143

Additional Location(s) https://calendar.app.google/VMk5oz4q4ZqzmoBS7

Office Hours for Students/ Office Hours IN PERSON: Wednesdays, 1pm - 3pm; via Zoom: https://calendar.app.google/VMk5oz4q4ZqzmoBS7

Mail Stop Film and Digital Media

Biography, Education and Training

JON AYON is a writer and director from Oakland, CA, by way of Northeast LA, where he was born and raised. Ayon is a native Spanish speaker and currently an assistant professor of film and digital media at UC Santa Cruz. He earned his bachelor’s degree in cinema production with honors from San Francisco State University and his MFA in documentary film and video production from Stanford University. 

As a Mestizo (Comcáac/Nahua-Salvadoreño/Xicano) son of Mexican and Salvadoran immigrants, Ayon grew up with a massive family split not only by political borders but also by cultural ones—Indigenous, Spanish, and African. Because of this, Ayon’s work often focuses on the hybridizations and ruptures of ancestral and modern cultures that shape the urban Mestizo family representing a large percentage of immigrant households in North America. 

Ayon’s documentary films have won awards like the Grand Prize in the 2018 Coppola Director’s Short Competition, 2020 Best Documentary Short from NewFilmmakers LA, and 2022 Full Frame President’s Award, among others. His work has also been nominated for awards from IDA, Screencraft, Nantucket Film Festival, and Slamdance. In 2022, he was awarded the North Star fellowship at Camden International Film Festival and a Filmhouse residency at SFFILM. 

His latest fiction short, NIKI•TOMI•BETO (supported in 2025 by the Berkley Film Foundation), recently began its film festival tour, where it has already been awarded Best Short by audiences at SF Indie Fest ’26. As a first-gen filmmaker, Jon Ayon is proudly devoted to telling immigrant stories in an anti-immigrant world.

*Tips for success in prof. ayon alonso's courses- Be proactive and consider the work you want to do in the course PRIOR to enrolling. Lastly, WHY and HOW are THE most important questions to ask yourself about the work you wanna make.

Summary of Expertise

Post-production - Film & Video Editing, Sound Mixing & Mastering, Avid, Premiere Pro, Davinci Resolve, ProTools, Ableton, Logic, and After Effects.

Production - Directing actors, Sound recording, Digital and Film Cinematography [ARRI, Sony, Blackmagic, Panasonic, Bolex], Assistant Directing, and Producing.

Pre-production - Screenwriting, Grantwriting, Development, Fundraising, Production Budget, Production Planning, and Storyboarding.

Research Interests

Documentary production, Film production, Latinx/Xicanx/Indigenous/Mestizo Narratives, Screenwriting, Xicanx/Latinx Cinema, Plurinationalist Cinema, Mexican Cinema, Directing Actors, and Independent Cinema.

Teaching Interests

Social Documentation, Screenwriting, Post Production, Film Production, Directing Actors, Mexican Cinema, Latinx/Xicanx/Indigenous/Mestizx Cinema, Film Development and Pre Production.

Awards, Honors and Grants

2025     Peabody Award for Documentary: One With the Whale [editor]

2024     Berkeley FILM Foundation Narrative Grant Award - NIKI•TOMI•BETO

2023     Yearlong Fellowship: Sundance Doc Program Edit Lab
Finalist – Mestizx: Aquí y Allá
2023     Yearlong fellowship: ScreenCraft Short Screenplay
Finalist - Niki•Tomi•Beto
2022     Best Short Film: No Soy Óscar
Highland Park Indie Film Festival
2022     Best International Doc: No Soy Óscar
Puerto Rico Film Festival
2022     North Star Fellowship: Mestizx: Aquí y Allá
Weeklong Fellowship with the Points North Institute in Camden, ME
2022     David Wolpner Award Nominee: No Soy Óscar
IDA Awards (International Documentary Association)
2022     President's Award: No Soy Óscar
Full Frame Documentary Festival
2022     Yearlong Fellowship: Residency – Mestizx: Aquí y Allá
SFFILM Filmhouse
2021     Best Documentary: Manzanal
NewFilmmakers LA
2020     Best Realistic Short: Manzanal
Reale Film Festival
2020     Virginia Dares Cinematic Arts Award for Decolonizing/Re-Indigenizing Media: Manzanal
Virginia Tech College of Liberal Arts
2020     Best Short Film, Documentary: Manzanal
NewFilmmakers LA
2019     Portland Dark Diversity & Inclusion Writing Fellowship: Lower Boom Studios
2018     Grand Prize: Sombras (Shadows)
Francis Ford Coppola Short Film Competition

2021     Lead Artist, Production Grant – No Soy Óscar
Maiken Baird and Timothy Luke Fund
2021     Lead Artist, Production Award - Manzanal
J Anthony Rhulen Fund
2020     Lead Artist, The Charla Fund
US Latinx Art Forum
2018     Lead Artist, Production Grant - Sombras (Shadows)
The Annenberg Foundation

Advisees, Grad Students & Researchers Huerta Rodriguez, Libertad (lhuert11)
De La Hoz, Isabella (idelahoz)
Belezzuoli, Emily (ebelezzu)

Courses SOCD294A
SOCD201A
SOCD201B
FILM172
FILM170B
FILM 196A
FILM 20P
SOCD 294C