Melissa Beatriz
Melissa Beatriz is an Uruguayan-American documentary filmmaker, cultural producer, and researcher whose work focuses on the intersection of social justice, media arts/culture, and policy. She is the Founder/Director of Actívate Stories, a media arts entity that produces collaborative documentaries, engages in cultural preservation, and develops creative strategies focused on art and social change.
Since 2010, Melissa has collaborated with artists and arts organizations throughout the Greater Philadelphia region, primarily as a Producer of community media and folkloric arts projects. As an arts administrator and media organizer, she has mobilized resources to collaboratively develop digital projects, programs, and small organizations.
Melissa is currently directing two documentary films, as a first-time director. La Lucha Sigue (The Fight Continues) is a short animated documentary that centers three immigrant rights leaders who work to shut down the Berks Detention Center in Pennsylvania, one of three prisons nationwide that had detained immigrant children and families. Philly Rumba is a short archival documentary that features African American and Latin American percussionists/cultural keepers who have played a role in preserving the culture of rumba percussion in the Philadelphia region.
Melissa is a 2025 Flaherty Film Seminar Fellow, 2022 Al Día 40 Under 40 honoree, 2019 Leeway Transformation Awardee, and 2020 Fellow of the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures (NALAC) Leadership Institute. Her media work has been supported by Philadelphia’s Cultural Treasures, Lenfest Institute for Journalism, Scribe Video Center, Independence Public Media Foundation, Velocity Fund, Doc Society: Good Pitch Local Philadelphia, Leeway Foundation, Double Exposure Scholars, and Sundance Institute’s New Frontier Philadelphia Day Lab.
Awarded Grants
2025
Media Artist + Activist Residency (MAR)
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Overview
Melissa Beatriz will collaborate with People’s Budget Office on Participatory Art and Budgeting, a short film and digital resource campaign that demystifies Philadelphia’s budget process and inspires everyday Philadelphians to engage in civic life through art and protest.
2019
Art and Change Grant (ACG)
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Overview
Melissa is creating The Fight Continues/La Lucha Sigue, a documentary film that centers immigrant community leaders in Philadelphia who use grassroots and cultural organizing to advocate for policy changes. The leaders that are featured fight for a world that values human beings above borders.
Partner
2019
Leeway Transformation Award (LTA)
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Overview
Melissa Beatriz is a documentary filmmaker, media artist, and writer based in Philadelphia. She uses storytelling as a tool to collectively share counter-narratives, produce cultural work, and support organizing. Her projects focus on social justice, the arts, and deconstructing policy/power. Since 2010, she has collaborated with grassroots groups and media arts organizations, with roles in communications, development, community engagement, film programming, teaching, and production. Some of these organizations include Taller Puertorriqueño, Media Mobilizing Project (MMP), Scribe Video Center, BlackStar Film Festival, PHL Latino Film Festival, and the Reentry Think Tank. Melissa is currently directing the documentary film La Lucha Sigue/The Fight Continues, which centers the immigrant justice movement and #ShutDownBerks campaign in the region. She is a Doc Society Good Pitch Local Philadelphia grantee (2019), Leeway Foundation Art & Change (2019, 2012) and Window of Opportunity (2017) grantee, and an MMP Movement Media Fellow (2014).
2017
Window of Opportunity Grant (WOO)
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Overview
Melissa Beatríz (ACG ’12) was invited to Austin, Texas to share her documentary film work and collaborate with organizers at the forefront of the immigrant rights movement. She conducted a hands-on DSLR camera and storytelling workshop with youth, focused on producing stories that center the perspectives of Latin American migrant families. Melissa also collected stories of leaders advocating for immigrant rights in Austin, featuring youth, families, teachers, counselors, and activists. These narratives are part of an archival project that follows the immigrant rights movement across cities in the U.S., through the use of digital storytelling as a collaborative tool for organizing.
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