documentary
2007
9 minutes
These days what drops through the mail slot is mostly take out menus, junk mail and catalogs. Lots of catalogs. Melissa gets so fed up with receiving catalogs every day that she takes the small action of calling Pottery Barn’s 800 number and requesting to be removed from their mailing list. When she is asked by the operator why she no longer wants to receive their catalog, she uses the question as an opportunity to sound off.
documentary
2005
15 minutes
John has an unusual hobby for a longtime resident of New York City. As a way to connect to nature within the city, he maintains three beehives on his Brooklyn rooftop. Following John the beekeeper as he examines his bees’ in their hives, laboriously harvests their honey, and then sells the local honey in his Forte Greene neighborhood, Rooftop Bees gives a glimpse into the practice of urban beekeeping and shows how John’s bees are helping to pollinate the Big Apple.
documentary
2003
36 minutes
Melissa recently found out that she will inherit her Grandpa Sidney’s one bedroom apartment on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Sidney, who is losing his memory to Alzheimer’s Disease, has moved into an assisted living facility in Florida. In his absence, Melissa rummages around his apartment, finding clues about her grandfather, the history of his neighborhood and the changes that are taking place in his cooperative.
documentary
2002
8 minutes
From behind her video camera, Melissa spends time with her pajama clad, Grandpa Phil as he slowly and methodically goes through the nightly ritual of preparing his pills for the following day.
Phil Sosis, who passed away in 2002, was one of Melissa’s heroes. He was warm, creative, funny, and deeply committed to social justice. To read an interview by Melissa of her grandfather, click here.
experimental
2001
1 minute
A short love letter to the right angled, beauty of New York City’s built environment.
experimental
2000
3 minutes
To imagine what she might do with 20X20 feet of real estate, Melissa gives a tour of a loft apartment that she built and decorated in 20X20 inch scale.
narrative
1999
15 minutes
With a guitar on her back and a tape recorder in her hand, 13 year old Hope steps off a Peter Pan bus, eager to spend the weekend playing music and hanging out with her musician, father. But this weekend Hope inadvertently discovers that she’s not the only woman in her father’s life. As her bus leaves the station, Hope plays back the sounds that she has recorded over the weekend with her dad- some silly, some mundane, but all precious now that she is completing her round trip.
documentary
1992
30 minutes
Through interviews with female photographers who photograph men, images of photography in popular culture, and personal narrative, Look This Way explores what happens when traditional gender roles are reversed and women direct their gaze at men. Asking questions about how representation, power, and pleasure play into the making of photographs, Melissa considers what kind of an image maker she wants to be.
documentary
1991
13 minutes
In his legendary shop, Picture Paradise, Boston area musician, Ed Moose Savage, gives 9 year old, Hope Roth, a yo-yo lesson. Amidst framed movie posters, postcards, and tchochkes, Moose performs yo-yo tricks such as walk the dog, rock the baby and around the world. In the words of Moose, “We’re talkin’ about gettin’ serious here about yo-yo’s”.
documentary
1990
13 minutes
Seated side by side in their living room, Irene and Nicky Ficarra share stories of their lives. From behind her walker, beneath Nicky’s landscape paintings on the wall, Irene reads some of her witty yet tender writing. By example, Irene and Nicky show us how to grow old with humor, grace and love.
