The Flaherty Fellowship

The 2025 Fellowship program will run Wednesday June 25 through Sunday June 29.

Congrats to SIFTer Melissa Beatriz

The Flaherty Fellowship is a vital part of the Flaherty Film Seminar, providing emerging and mid-career filmmakers, media professionals, and community leaders with an immersive space to deepen their engagement with cinema. The program provides Fellows with a unique opportunity to focus on the ethical, artistic, and community-aspects of their practice. In addition to the rigorous program of screenings and facilitated discussions, the immersive nature of the Fellowship program, where participants reside together and engage in shared meals and social gatherings, encourages a deep and active community centered around the exchange of cinematic ideas.  FIND OUT MORE

Waterman II Fund of the Philadelphia Foundation

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 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.

See ALL The 2025 Flaherty Fellows