Melanie is an award-winning Vancouver filmmaker who has written, directed, and produced a wide variety of documentary programs for the CBC, Knowledge Network, and others. Her work pursues themes that are both universal and deeply personal, such as School of Secrets, about girls who were instructed to keep silent about their sexual relationship with a teacher; Liberia ’77, about brothers returning to the war-ravaged land of their childhood; and Shut Up & Say Something, a son’s journey to find a relationship with a father he never knew, featuring performer and poet Shane Koyczan.

In her most recent project, Melanie is the series creator, producer and director of Living in HOpe, a documentary series driven by people dealing with realities of mental illness; following journeys of patients and frontline practitioners. Other works include Foncie’s Photos, using snapshots of one street photographer to trace a timeline through the heart of Vancouver; and Carbon Hunters, about emerging world carbon emissions markets. Melanie has also produced and directed two documentaries on the borderlands between the internet and the human spirit: A Stranger In Our Home, about internet child sex predators; and O.com:cybersex addiction.

She has also worked in collaboration with several Vancouver-based documentary companies, as the Executive Producer for Just Eat It: A food waste story, for Knowledge Network and recently aired on MSNBC; and as Writer & Director on Weather Gone Wild about adapting to climate changes; and To the Rescue on the state of Canadian search and rescue both produced for CBC Doc Zone.