The Team

Esther Pearl is the founder and Executive Director of Reel Stories. She received her Bachelor’s in Visual Arts from the University of California, San Diego and her M.B.A. in Sustainable Management from The Presidio Graduate School. She spent 15 years working in Production Management in the entertainment industry. The majority of Esther’s film career was spent at Pixar Animation Studios where her feature film credits include Academy Award winning films The Incredibles, Wall-e, and Monsters, Inc. Her other credits include Titanic, Starship Troopers, Armageddon, and What Dreams May Come. Esther has been honored for her contributions to Bay Area Women in Film, Television, and Media by the San Francisco Women’s Film Institute. She was a semi-finalist for the Echoing Green Fellowship awarded to a social entrepreneur addressing urgent issues in society today. In 2018, she received the Distinguished Leadership Award from the Advanced Imaging Society. Esther believes in the power of great storytelling to create social change.

Anjalie is a University of California, Santa Barbara graduate with a Bachelor's degree in Communication. She's been with Reel Stories since February 2017, starting out as a marketing volunteer and joining the team full time in January 2019. Anjalie is passionate about advocating for gender equity in the media and stoked to be working with Reel Stories to fight the patriarchy!

Alexandria has spent the past eight years as a journalist working in newsrooms across the country - from the mountains of rural Western North Carolina, to the coast of Miami and, most recently, in Santa Rosa. She obtained a graduate degree from Columbia University and as a journalist has covered topics including the opioid epidemic overwhelming foster care systems, the difficulties of accessing mental health services, LGBTQ+ rights and cases of sexual assault. She is a first-generation Cuban-American woman. Alexandria brings her strength of storytelling and passion for highlighting the stories of those underrepresented in the media to the Reel Stories team.

Vera is an arts administrator originally from Brooklyn, New York. She is an avid reader, hiker, and movie-lover. In addition to working with Reel Stories, Vera currently works with KPFA Community Radio. In the past she has worked with Bay Area media organizations including Making Contact and The Freedom Archives. She is passionate about supporting artists and organizers create and challenge the world around them

Grace is an Art and Technology major at Mills College with dreams of making movies that will change the world. She has been a part of Reel Stories since 2014, and is a proud member of the LGBTQ+ community. The film she is most proud of creating at Reel Stories is “After The Storm”, which had its audio mixed at Dolby Laboratories in San Francisco. Some of her favorite TV shows with strong female characters are Crazy Ex Girlfriend, The Handmaid’s Tale, and Glow.

Yasaman Ford is a graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles with a bachelor's degree in Film and Television with a concentration in Documentary and Digital Media. Yasaman attended the very first Camp Reel Stories in 2013 and returned in 2014 and 2015 as a camper. After graduating high school Yasaman attended camp for three more years as a volunteer "producer" and in 2020 as a staff member after graduating college. Being introduced to the film world through Reel Stories, filmmaking and feminism has always gone hand in hand for Yasaman and she aims to educate others, from toddlers to teenagers, on the importance of representation in the media. Yasaman's own work as a filmmaker includes narrative production design to directing documentaries to freelance motion graphics and editing.

Currently in her 2nd year at San Francisco’s California College of the Arts, Mina is an international student studying film. Mina was born in Japan, moved to the Philippines when she was 6, and has spent the last 2 years in the U.S. During her time at CCA, she’s become interested in the pre-production aspect of film, particularly project management. Ideally, she loved to be the project manager for animated films, which she feels have served as a way for her to keep in touch with her culture and plans to dive deeper into the influence of Asian American culture through animation. While in school in the Philippines, Mina helped start the successful Manila Student Film Festival, which is now an annual event! When she's not killing it in film, she loves doing yoga and strengthening her drawing skills.

Heidi is the founder and former director of the School of Digital Media at Oakland School for the Arts (OSA), and former co-chair of OSA's School of Visual Art. She has B.F.A in Film from Virginia Commonwealth University and an M.F.A. in Visual Effects Programming from Savannah College of Art and Design. Heidi formerly served on our Board of Directors in the Bay Area and now is the Media Teacher of various virtual programs for Reel Stories online!

Anne Smith has a B.A. in English from Northwestern University. She teaches film, animation, photography, and English in the Piedmont Unified School District.

Crystal Williams is a multidisciplinary artist from Oakland, CA who doubles as an Accounting/Finance professional. She’s a proud HBCU alum with a passion for Women’s Health, Filmmaking and mentoring the next generation of creative girls/non binary youth.

Thanks in large part to Reel Stories’ Women’s Filmmaking Weekend, her passion for filmmaking and acting was reignited and her film resume now includes Acting, Writing, Editing and Music Direction credits.

Melissa is an East Bay native currently working at Google as a Global Program Manager on the Women Techmakers team.Through her work she aims to create visibility, community, and resources for women in tech throughout all phases of their career. She has spoken at tech summits and conferences in Morocco, China, Czech Republic, Spain, and across the US. Prior to joining Google, she spent a year in Malaysia on a Fulbright Scholarship. She graduated from Scripps College in Claremont, CA where she majored in American Studies, and minored in Media and Hispanic Studies.