People

We feature underrepresented storytellers from bilingual, multi-generational immigrant, and BIPOC communities.

Team

Melissa Beatriz

Founder / Director (she/her/ella)

Melissa Beatriz is a 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.

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.

melissa@activatestories.org

Erika Ramírez-Lorenzo

Multimedia & Communications Coordinator (she/they)

Erika Ramírez-Lorenzo is a Philadelphia-based photographer, videographer, video editor, and aspiring filmmaker. Through her work, she aims to capture the stories of people, places, and their effect on one another. In 2023, she participated in the Blackstar Lab Shadow program where she was a production assistant on An Endoscopy and All That's Left. Since then, she has assisted on several short films. Her photography work has been featured twice at TILT in 2017 and 2020, and at PhotoLounge as part of their 2024 Best of the Year gallery. Currently, she is the Multimedia Communications Coordinator for Actívate Stories.

Lila Yomtoob

Co-Producer, Cultural Justice Project

Lila Yomtoob has worked in both above and below line in the media space on over 50 productions with budgets up to $65M. This includes films directed by Spike Lee, Mary Herron, The Cohen Brother and John Cameron Mitchell and for the likes of Netflix, Amazon, HBO, IFC and 20th Century Fox. While Lila has produced films soup to nuts, her specialties are development, post production, marketing and distribution. Her work has received honors and accolades worldwide including an Emmy Award for sound editorial on Baghdad ER (HBO).

Lila is a storyteller by nature. The work she feels most connected to are imaginative and telling, whether comedy, drama or documentary. She is passionate about social issues, bringing people together, and creating. As a former member of IATSE 700 and 871, one of her goals is to create a culture of collaboration and kindness around her productions. Lila enjoys gardening, backgammon, laughing, and cute animal videos. She is of Iranian, Iraqi and Jewish heritage and was born in Chicago, raised in L.A., and grew up in New York City. She currently lives in LA with her partner Bill and her furry best friend Shorty.

Collaborators & Partners

  • Two people playing instruments in front of a colorful wall.

    TIMBALONA

    Co-Director/Producer - Philadelphia Rumba

    TIMBALONA Collective is a percussion ensemble in its core, with a focus on folklore and popular music from the Caribbean and Latin America. The focus of the TIMBALONA Collective is to bring spectators a musical experience of rhythm sections, storytelling, and dance.

  • A woman smiles and a brick wall is behind her.

    Shannon Sun-Higginson

    Producer, La Lucha Sigue

    Shannon Sun-Higginson is a documentary producer and director whose work has premiered at Sundance and SXSW, and aired on PBS, Discovery Channel, Travel Channel, CNN, and HBO. She is a two time Sundance Producing Fellow and is currently story producing for ABC and Hulu.

  • Shoes Off Media Logo. A circle has three pairs of shoes on it.

    Shoes Off Media

    Production Company, La Lucha Sigue

    Shoes Off Media is led by three Asian women who aim to support and co-conspire with communities of color to uplift their stories with intention and authenticity.

  • SIFTMedia 215

    Executive Producer, We, the Artists

    SIFTMedia 215 is a collective of independent media artists in the Philadelphia metropolitan area dedicated to championing socially conscious women-identified filmmakers, especially from Black and Latinx communities

  • Acheré Percussion

    Music Consultant

    Acheré Percussion is a small artisan handmade drum and repair shop, led by Latino artists.