Gabriela Watson-Burkett

Gabriela Watson-Burkett will join forces with Centro Integral de la Mujer Madre Tierra to launch Empowering Madres Latinas, a multilingual media campaign centering immigrant mothers’ stories and organizing power as a force for feminist immigrant justice.

Gabriela Watson-Burkett has been invited to speak on a panel titled Rompiendo barreras: Liderazgo Afro-Latino en los medios (Breaking Barriers: Afro-Latino Leadership in the Media) at the 2025 National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) Conference in Chicago. This opportunity marks the culmination of her fellowship with NAHJ’s Adelante Academy and directly aligns with her work as an Afro-Latina journalist, filmmaker, and co-founder of Inti Media. At the conference, Gabriela will advocate for increased Afro-Latine visibility in media leadership and document the panel through a video and article to share widely with community-based outlets. This opportunity will strengthen Gabriela’s artistic leadership, expand her network, and amplify stories that challenge anti-Black bias and uplift intersectional narratives within Latine media.

The WOO Grant will support Gabriela with ground transportation, food, and video-editing expenses.

Gabriela Watson-Burkett is an award-winning filmmaker, producer, and educator based in Philadelphia. Born and raised in Brazil and of Peruvian descent, Gabriela draws from her multicultural heritage to create documentaries that inspire social change. Her projects explore the intersection of Latinx culture, Black identity, women empowerment, and community voices. Gabriela is one of the co-founders of !Presente! Media, a creative collective led by Latinx artists focused on social justice. Gabriela directed three documentaries that have been screened in various festivals around the world: “BEYOND,” “Baobab Flowers”, which won the Audience Award for Best Documentary Short at the 2017 BlackStar Film Festival, and “Nosotros, Afro-Peruanos”. She is currently working on a new documentary film. Gabriela holds an MFA in Film and Media Arts from Temple University, she has worked as a Producer for media outlets like 6-ABC, WHYY and PhillyCAM. She also has taught Filmmaking at various universities around the Philadelphia area such as Temple University and Saint Joseph’s University. When not working on her productions, Gabriela can be found having fun with her husband Scott and their two daughters, Maya and Savannah.

Gabriela will create Baobab Flower, a documentary about education inequality as a global issue. It follows two black women educators, one in Philadelphia and the other in Sao Paulo. Both of them challenge the public educational system. In this final phase, Gabriela will submit the film to festivals and work on a distribution plan for the film to be used as a tool for educators.