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Melody C. Miller is an award-winning filmmaker who has directed and lensed behind the camera for Samsung, Sony Pictures, HBO, Discovery Channel, PBS, Amazon Prime, Starz, ESPN, Peacock/NBC Universal, and the Smithsonian Channel, among others, and two award-winning feature documentaries called CALIFORNIA'S FORGOTTEN CHILDREN and RUTH WEISS, THE BEAT GODDESS. Those films have screened at the United States Senate, United State of Women Summit, Human Rights Watch, hundreds of Human Rights and Environmental Rights organizations, and over fifty film festivals across the planet. Originally from Oakland, California, Melody spent the early years of her life learning French culture, then moved to the Mediterranean for four years, sparking her filmmaking career's roots. Concentrating in Cinematography and Documentary, she graduated from the UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television. She works all over California and is based in Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay Area.
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Melody is a member of the International Collective of Female Cinematographers, Film Fatales, Women In Film, Free the Work, and the International Documentary Association. She is PADI certified deep ocean advanced diver as well as a licensed Small Aviation Camera Operator. She can work independently or build custom teams for each project bringing together reliable, fun, and creative crews who share the mission and values of the project and get the job done on time, and budget. |
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Director of Photography
With over a decade of experience working as a freelance cinematographer, Melody has led camera and lighting teams making artistic and technical decisions related to the visual interpretation of the story on numerous documentaries, narratives, music videos, and PSAs. She collaborates and communicates closely with the production teams to ensure that each project reflects the story's visual style, pace, and overall quality standards.
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Winner of the Women in Film Cinematography Award Fellowship, Melody has lensed films for various genres, such as the action-packed feature DIMENSIONAL SHIFT, starring Terell Tilford and Victoria Platt, for director Amber Sharp. #WHEREISBEAUTY, an art noir film starring singer Goapele, directed by Angela McCrae, premiered at the Cannes Pan African Film Festival and won Best Cinematography Idlewild International Film Festival. She frequently works with director Nate'Eya Kahsai on comedies and music videos. |
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In the documentary world, Melody collaborated with director Alexis Kadey, whose human rights film CROWNING CHANGE premiered at the Toronto LGBT Film Festival and won Best Documentary at the Los Angeles Film Awards. Melody traveled across the country and captured breath-taking images and human stories for the documentary series ON COMMON GROUND dedicated to protecting the National Parks. She worked with Academy Award Nominated Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering a HBOMax documentary series called NOT SO PRETTY SKINS episode revealing the first-ever comprehensive large-scale investigative expose of the trillion-dollar cosmetics, beauty and personal care industry. Melody documented scenes for the STARZ series, SEDUCED: INSIDE THE NXIVM CULT, directed by Cecilia Peck, about women branded and forced into sexual slavery. Melody has also respectfully worked on projects across the U.S. and U.K. for the Elizabeth Taylor Archives, produced by Stephanie Austin.
Documentarian
Currently airing on PBS, Melody's first directed feature, CALIFORNIA'S FORGOTTEN CHILDREN, follows a diverse group of resilient survivors who have overcome commercial sexual exploitation as children and are changing the world by ensuring no child is forgotten. Invited by Vice-President Kamala Harris, the film screened on Capitol Hill at the United States Senate in 2019, encouraging policymakers to create and implement laws and policies to combat trafficking. The film also screened at the United States of Women Summit, featuring guest speaker former First Lady Michelle Obama in 2018. The film won Best Documentary at the Soho International Film Festival and won numerous film awards at nineteen other film festivals worldwide.
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Melody collaborated on screenings with 100+ organizations from the government, foster care systems, juvenile detention facilities, crisis centers, tech companies, and healthcare organizations to prevent these injustices from continuing. The documentary helped fundraise for safe-homes, crisis centers, and direct services for victims of commercial sexual exploitation, sexual assault, homelessness, and HIV/AIDS. In addition to creating an Ambassador program to create jobs for survivor leaders. |
Her second directed feature documentary, ruth weiss, the beat goddess (spelled lower case), is about one of the influential writers of the Beat Generation who revolutionized and empowered the world of poetry. The film had it's World Premiere in Italy at the Asolo Art Film Festival, won Best Documentary at the Peekskill Film Festival, Riverside International Film Festival, Visionary Women In Film Award at the Santa Cruz Film Festival, and was nominated for Best Documentary at ten other film festivals nationwide. ruth weiss was awarded the 2020 Maverick Spirit Award by Academy Award Qualifying Cinequest Film Festival. You can watch the film on PBS, Amazon Prime, Tubi, and many more channels.
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