Gabriela Watson-Burkett

Award-winning Filmmaker, Producer & Multimedia Journalist

 

"I'm passionate about using my storytelling skills to bring attention to social inequalities and also highlight inspiring stories of communities often overlooked in traditional media" 

 

Gabriela has experience as a Producer on Broadcast TV Journalism, documentaries, film festivals, and entertainment TV programs. Gabriela has worked as a Producer for Marc Lamont Hill's show Black News Tonight at the Black News Channel, WPVI-6ABC and WHYY. Currently, she is one of the Co-founders and Journalists at ¡Presente! Media. Gabriela also taught Digital Filmmaking and Latin American Cinema in many universities in the Philadelphia area. 

 

Her first documentary “Nosotros, Afroperuanos” (We, Afro-Peruvians) was screened in more than ten countries. Her second documentary "Baobab Flowers" won the Audience Award for Favorite Documentary Short at the BlackStar Film Festival and was screened in many film festivals. Her third documentary series BEYOND, is being screened in various film festivals around the country.

​

Gabriela holds an MFA in Film & Media Arts with an emphasis in Documentary Arts and Ethnographic Practice from Temple University and a BA in Communications: Radio and TV from Faculdade Casper Libero, in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

 

Awards: 2020 Community Voices Grant | Independence Public Media Foundation, 2020 Solidarity Fund for COVID-19 Organizing | Bread & Roses, 2019 Leeway Art and Change Award, 2019 Lenfest Next Generation Fund Recipient, 2018 Cammy Awards, 2018 Recipient of Philadelphia Independent Media Finishing Funds, 2016 LAB Cinegritude Film Residency, 2015 Who's Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges, 2015 Flaherty Seminar Fellow, 2014 Black Women Film Network Organization Scholarship Recipient, 2014 The Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival Fellow.