Meet the Team
Meet the people that work to make our programs and impact a reality.
Founder.
Kimberly Bautista
Executive Director and Founder
Kimberly Bautista is a Colombian-American award-winning writer, director, and producer. Her feature-length documentary film titled "Justice for My Sister" about femicide in Guatemala was broadcast on PBS Stations and TeleSUR. The film screened in 20 countries to audiences who also received training in violence prevention with the trauma-informed curriculum that Kimberly authored. Over 15,000 live audience members partook in the community screening and trainings, and over 100,000 people saw the film on television broadcast. As a result of community organizing and the film’s multi-year tour, she founded the arts nonprofit Justice for My Sister Collective to train youth to make films that transform trauma into healing, in order to promote racial equity and gender justice. Kimberly is a fierce champion of youth leadership, human rights, and the arts to promote healing and social change.
Kimberly obtained her Bachelors from Pitzer College and her MFA from University of California, Santa Cruz in Social Documentary.
Admin.
Pamela Gutierrez
Consultant & Grantwriter
Mockingbird Analytics
Pamela has more than 7 years of experience in the financial sector of Colombia. Prior to coming to Los Angeles in 2017 to pursue a Master of Science in Social Entrepreneurship from the University of Southern California, Pamela studied Financial Engineering in Bogota, Colombia and worked for the 3 of the 4 biggest pension funds in the country in the areas of Risk Management, Strategy Evaluation and Portfolio Administration. She administered more than $220 million government entities' trust business in local government securities market. Pamela's background is in quantitative evaluation and financial analysis. Pamela is passionate about helping nonprofits and social enterprises to solve the most challenging social problems and be able to connect and support them in finding innovative profit models.
Karla Legaspy
Programs Manager
Karla Legaspy is MeXicana multi-disciplinary artist and filmmaker.
She is a two-time awardee of the Latino Public Broadcasting Public Media Content Fund. Karla is proud of her many creative collaborations with artists, communities and organizations.
Her creative spectrum of work crosses borders, time and genres with themes on race, class, sexual orientation, trauma, migration, ceremonial work and queer love.
Karla is known for her PBS audience award winning film “Gold Star” playing on PBS platforms. As a producer, Karla has been able to support numerous projects that bring forth the queer/trans brown experience. Her latest directorial film “The Daily War” premiered on the PBS Latino Experience series and will be available on Voces on PBS soon.
As an active member of the queer Latinx community she Co-founded The Latin@ Queer Arts and Film Festival/Cine Arte Film Festival. In 2020 she founded Kitzo Productions to help shift the narratives of her communities, envisioning storytelling from her specific lens. Karla envisions her work in the words of Gloria Anzaldua "Do work that matters, vale la pena".
Julissa Villatoro
Programs Assistant
Julissa Villatoro is a freelance video editor, production assistant, writer, and JFMS alumni. She first came as a student for Nuevas Novelas 2017, and has since then risen up the ranks in leadership. She has also found work in different companies in post production, including Spotify, Warner Bros, Collegehumor Media, and Prettybird. She now serves the JFMS community as Programs Assistant for the PA Certification Training Program and general tech support. Julissa also enjoys illustrating comics, watching animation, and binging TV shows and movies. She aspires to write for animation and live action TV shows and feature length productions.
Maaman Rezaee
Grants Manager
Maaman Rezaee is an Iranian-American filmmaker whose work focuses on issues of memory, belonging and transcultural dynamics. She writes and directs and has a background in education, talent management and nonprofit work.
She works within experimental and narrative forms. Her films have screened in numerous national and international film festivals and have been exhibited at ICA LA, Anthology Film Archives and Another Gaze Journal, to name a few.
Born and raised in Iran, Rezaee began her creative practice with studies in music and painting. She later attended Baha'i Institute of Higher Education, an underground university for Baha'is, a religious minority in Iran who are banned from entering state universities. After immigrating to the U.S, Rezaee received her MFA in Film and Media Arts from Temple University and worked as an Assistant Professor at University of New Mexico. She’s currently based in Los Angeles.
Melba Martinez
Communications Manager
Melba (she/they) is an artist and cultural organizer from Pacoima, CA. Their passion for art, activism, and the fight for the liberation of all oppressed people guide her life and work. After attending UC Santa Barbara, Melba was a community organizer in the North East San Fernando Valley working mostly with immigrant women to create strong and thriving communities. After her time as a community organizer, Melba merged her love of art with her passion for social justice and began working with arts organizations, both non and for profit working to create a more just world. They’ve worked with the South Bay Center for Counseling, CultureGapLA, Maximum Fun, A Tribe Called Queer, And currently work with Feminist Center for Creative Work, Justice for My Sister and with BRIC Foundation. Melba’s personal art practice involves a variety of mediums including performance, modeling, video art, installation, fiber arts, makeup and styling. Melba weaves her varied knowledge together to create space for historically excluded voices in the arts and the world at large.
Nancy Ramos
Editor
Nancy Ramos (she/her/hers) is a Queer Chicana from San Bernardino, California. She graduated from CSUN in 2018 with a degree in Television Production. She's been working professionally as a Video Editor since 2012. She's edited projects for companies such as Sony, Netflix and PBS SoCal. She also teaches Video Production to middle school and high school students in San Diego County. She began her work with Justice for My Sister in 2019 after a chance encounter on a bus with founder, Kimberly Bautista who offered her a mentorship and career in non-profit, which has become the highlight of her career. In her free time, she enjoys reading, screenwriting, and hosting a Film Club.
Tianna Edmonson
Administrative Assistant
Tianna Edmonson (they/them) is a genderqueer being descended from many peoples. They are a sound explorer, transdisciplinary artist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer, and DJ, born and based in Los Angeles / Tongva Land. Their focus is on creating sonic healing experiences as well as learning how to bring more accessibility into their organizing. They are also the drummer for the queer no wave band, FUPU
Alix Azuike
Programs Assistant
Alix Azuike has joined the JFMS team as one of the Programs Assistants. Her creative background in filmmaking and desire to uplift the community, inspiries her within this role. Having graduated with a Bachelor's in Television, Film and Media her creative pursuits are channeled through her screenwriting abilities. Actively working with JFMS supports her motivation to incorporate the beauty of her own cultures while highlighting others, to facilitate the essence of coming together within her writing. Breathing life into BIPOC stories while giving back to programs like JFMS and the community are what drives her in life.
Afterschool Arts.
Michelle Barnes
Teaching Artist
Annette Bilow
Teaching Artist
Clover
Teaching Artist
Sebastian Gonzalez
Teaching Artist
Elizabeth Uribe
Teaching Artist
BIPOC Sci-Fi Lab.
Jahmil Eady
Mentor
Jahmil Eady is an award-winning writer, director, and producer who blends genre with social impact storytelling. Her work unpacks contemporary social issues and often features Black, POC, and LGBTQIA+ folks in fantastical environments.
Jahmil grew up in Charleston, SC and NYC. She earned her BA in Media Studies from Pomona College and studied at the Prague Film School in the Czech Republic. Jahmil holds an MFA in Directing from UCLA where she was the Inaugural Graduate Class Artist, representing over 14,000 Bruins for the class of 2023. She is also the Princess Grace Foundation's Inaugural Sir Roger Moore Honoree in Filmmaking.
Before transitioning to narrative film and television, Jahmil was an Associate Producer on documentary projects for Oprah Winfrey Network, Viceland, and Discovery Networks. Her short films have screened at over 50 film festivals worldwide, including several Academy Award and BAFTA-qualifying film festivals. She has been supported by Film Independent, Plate Spinner Productions, New Filmmakers Los Angeles NewNarratives Program, and the Rhulen Family Foundation.
Jahmil's other distinctions include the New York Times Award, The Jackie Robinson Foundation Award, and the Four Sisters Award bestowed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, Sara Finney Johnson, Mara Brock Akil, and Felicia D. Henderson.
Nanobah Becker
Mentor
Nanobah Becker (Diné) is an award-winning writer/director whose short films FLAT, CONVERSION, THE 6th WORLD, and LANDBACK, WATERBACK and video collaborations I LOST MY SHADOW and MY SOUL REMAINER have screened at festivals in the U.S. and internationally including the Sundance Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, and imagineNATIVE film + media arts festival and have been acquired by institutions such as the Baltimore Museum of Art. She recently shadowed on episodes of DARK WINDS (AMC) and BIG SKY (ABC) to learn more about TV directing and is currently in development on her first feature film. Nanobah is a citizen of the Navajo Nation and currently calls Tovaangar (Los Angeles) home.
Michael Allen Harris
Mentor
Michael is a Black queer nerd and 90's R&B/Hip Hop connoisseur. A 2020 Film Independent: Episodic Lab Fellow where he was mentored by Netflix producer Pete Corona, John Agbaje (Bad Robot), and Christopher Yost (Thor: Ragnarok). He is an Afrofuturist, who writes to carve a space for those subtracted from mainstream consciousness. Michael’s produced plays include Kingdom (published through Steele Spring Stage Rights), PUNK, and Rocky Road. His play, Kingdom, earned a Best New Play Nomination for the 2018 Non-Equity Jeff Awards, and the Lorraine Hansberry award through Black Theatre Alliance. Michael graduated with a MFA in Dramatic Writing from Tisch School of The Arts, and is one of the Resident Playwrights of Broken Nose Theatre.
Eddie Hemphill
Mentor
Eddie is a writer, editor, filmmaker, and producer who has worked to bring creative projects of all scales to life. His work ranges from producing HBO Max documentaries to spearheading globe-spanning viral campaigns to producing Apple Podcast featured shows. He is currently a Creative Producer for Field/House Productions.
His work has premiered at the Doris Duke Theater in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi; has been commissioned by organizations including Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, the Movement for Black Lives and others; and has been exhibited in art spaces including the Honolulu Museum of Art.
Eddie seeks to highlight how delicate moments with ourselves and each other are world-changing and revolutionary.
Janet Quezada
Lead Facilitator
Adesola Thomas
Guest Speaker
Adesola Thomas is a queer Nigerian-American television writer, playwright, producer, and director based in Brooklyn, NY although she will always call the ethnoburbs of Metro Atlanta home. Adesola has worked in development at A24, creative production for Netflix Queue, and is a proud member of the New York Script Supervisors Network (NYSSN). In 2022, she was a finalist for both the TRIBE TV Writer's Fellowship and the WGAE Writer's Support Staff Fellowship.
Adesola graduated from the University of St Andrews in Scotland where she was a Robert. T Jones Scholar in the graduate Screenwriting & Playwriting Dept. While in Scotland, Adesola wrote, produced, and directed flounder; a 90 minute two-act comedy about climate catastrophe that went on to be nominated for 4+ Golden Seashell Theater Awards including Best Play and Best Original Script. For her environmental organizing efforts around the play, Adesola was shortlisted for the St Andrews Enterprising Mind of the Year Award. Her affinity for intergenerational dramedies, sci-fi writing, and comedy led her to be hired to write for Sapphic Cyborgs, a forthcoming audio series about a lineage of Black space folk.
Adesola is contributing writer for Letterboxd’s film journal, Journal where she interviews filmmakers, writes film essays, and attends film festivals on behalf of the platform (Tribeca 23’, Sundance 23,’ NYFF 22’). Her short film, The Earth Will Not Swallow Us was an official entry at the 2022 Diversity at Cannes showcase and played widely throughout the US including stops at the BronzeLens Festival, Role Call Indie Atlanta, and the San Diego Black Film Festival.
Cassandra Hunter
Mentor
Cassandra Hunter is a multi-hyphenate, multi-racial artist. As a writer, she was recently selected out of 1,500 applicants for ColorCreative’s inaugural Find Your People Program, founded by Issa Rae and Deniese Davis. She has written four films set to release in 2024. She is a recent graduate from the prestigious American Conservatory Theater’s MFA Acting program, where she cultivated her affinity for daring, innovative storytelling. Her credits within the program include Bright Half Life, By the Way Meet Vera Stark, and In Love & Warcraft, which was remounted for the mainstage at A.C.T. following the success of the MFA premiere. Born in North Carolina, she was raised between there and New York City. Currently, she is bi-coastal in both Los Angeles & NYC. Cassandra is the 2022 recipient of the A.C.T. Fleishhacker Award for Acting Excellence.
Sannii Crespina
Mentor
Sannii Crespina-Flores has been a teaching artist, advocate, and activist for youth and women for more than twenty years, but it is the space between pen and paper that she finds sanctuary. A member of the Writers Guild of America(East) Indie Caucus and founder of the Un-Inhibited Muse Film Festival, the global youth initiative Do Remember Me, and the art collaborative Yram Collective, she is committed to building community, sharing the art of storytelling, and bearing witness through archiving. Sannii has also served as Board Chair for the Bartol Foundation. She has been a recipient of the Arts Connect International Ripple Award, a 2-time recipient of the Leeway Art and Change Grant, a 2-time recipient of the Independence Public Media Foundation Award and the MoFilm/AT&T grant to create works for independent television and cultural organizations. She has recorded an audio book of poetry and written a book of short stories currently on Amazon Books. She has screened work at the 60th Cannes Film Festival and was awarded the grand prize for the short story challenge at the 15th Sundance Film Festivals and a Producer of the independent award winning films “Slow Burn” and “The Accomplices”. Her work has been published in 50 in 50: Letters to Our Daughters, Black Female Photographers, midnight & indigo, Root Journal and received the MVICW Author, Barbara Neely Fellowships and a member of the Justice for my Sister Sci-Fi Screenwriting Lab. She has also contributed to academic publications and created learning guides for TED-Ed, National Geographic, and the Hip Hop Education Center.
Video Diaries.
Chica Barbosa
Mentor & Editor
CHICA is a Mexican-Brazilian filmmaker currently based in Los Angeles. Her artistic practice explores narrative, hybrid and experimental forms of storytelling, with a focus on themes like displacement,
colonialism, visible/invisible borders, and faith as an act of resistance. Her films have been showcased at IDFA, Frameline, Outfest, DOC NYC, LALIFF, Leeds International FF, Habana International FF, Cinélatino - Rencontres de Toulouse and Málaga International FF. CHICA has directed the short films FERROADA, LA FLACA, SAME/DIFFERENT/BOTH/NEITHER, as well as a documentary feature film, MADRIGAL FOR A LIVING POET. In 2022, her latest feature documentary, SWING AND SWAY, premiered at Sheffield Doc Fest. In 2023, CHICA was selected to participate in the Berlinale Talents where she pitched her new narrative short film, AMAINARY. She is currently in the process of developing her first narrative feature, which is set to be produced between Mexico and the US. The project has been selected for the Cine Qua Non Storyline Lab.
Luie P. Garcia
Mentor
Mexican immigrant is a former graphic designer and home decorator turned Production Designer since 2010. Experience includes short and full length films, episodic content, music videos, commercials, media content, stage design and residential/industrial renovation makeovers. Work often revolves around under-represented communities and the important issues affecting their daily lives such as discrimination, racism, mental health issues, addiction and domestic violence.
Community work includes classroom and on-set filmmaking mentorship programs with the "Youth Cinema Project '' by the Latino Film Institute and work as a teaching artist for Justice for my Sister for their summer program "Nuevas Novelas" and "To Foster Change" through PBS.
Pea Nuñez
Mentor & Editor
Currently, based in the ancestral and current homelands of the Tongva/ Gabrielino people aka LA, Pea is a cameraperson exploring culture, nature, and social movements with a focus on the BIPOC and queer communities. Born and raised in Peru, Pea arrived in the United States at age 15. In 2017, Pea earned a bachelors in arts in Film from the University of California, Los Angeles with an emphasis on cinematography. Their documentary and fiction films have garnered an audience and recognition through film festivals, broadcast television, and social media outlets. Deeply in love with Pachamama, they enjoy hiking, stargazing and learning sustainable ways to live in harmony with nature.
Mario Torres Torres
Mentor
Mario Torres Torres (they/he) is a Purepecha Indigenous filmmaker and organizer based in Tongva Land, Los Angeles, CA. Born in Mexico and immigrating at the age of six has shaped the stories they tell. From a young age, sitting around a campfire drinking café de olla and listening to elders pass down their stories sparked their curiosity in the art of storytelling.
Now, they are pursuing a career as a film producer and sound engineer to continue the work of great creatives to push the boundaries of media. Their aim is to provide a restorative platform to dismantle the lack of diversity and amplify representation in visual culture. In 2018, Torres Torres received a B.A. in Television, Film and Media Studies from Cal State LA and is currently a leading member of the Undocumented Filmmakers Collective. In 2022, he co-founded La Producción LLC, an undocumented lead full-service production company.
Program Support.
Ronnie Clark
Co-facilitator
Patricia Ovando
Co-facilitator