Melody Gilbert Pro

Melody Gilbert is a documentary filmmaker & passionate film educator. As an award-winning director, producer, cinematographer and editor who has DIRECTED eight feature-length films, her work has screened at major festivals and been distributed and broadcast internationally and on VOD. She is also a PRODUCER, WRITER and STORY CONSULTANT for other filmmakers and production companies.

The films she directs are noteworthy for featuring a rare intimacy with her subjects as she unearths previously hidden worlds. She works mostly solo as a one-woman crew and has the ability to get people to reveal their innermost thoughts, whether it’s the family of a child who can’t feel pain (A LIFE WITHOUT PAIN / SXSW/ OPRAH), a former Vice President of the United States (FRITZ: THE WALTER MONDALE STORY/ PBS), or people who have full-fledged relationships with synthetic companions (SILICONE SOUL/ STARZ www.siliconesoulmovie.com). Her work has been supported by the Jerome Foundation, Minnesota State Arts Board and a McKnight Foundation Filmmaker Fellowship.

Her feature-length films as DIRECTOR include:

Stories I Didnt Know (2022)

Silicone Soul )2018)
The Summer Help (2016)
Steps in the Fire (2016)
Fritz: The Walter Mondale Story (2009)
Urban Explorers: Into the Darkness (2008)
A Life Without Pain (2005)
Whole (2004)
Married at the Mall (2002)

Her most recent work as PRODUCER:

40 Below: the Toughest Race in the World (2023)

Queendom (2023) Consulting Producer

Love Them First (2019) * winner 2020 Alfred I. duPont Award
Beneath the Ink (2018) * nominated for 2019 national Emmy
Women Outward Bound (2016)
The Starfish Throwers(2015)
American Heart(2014)

Melody is also a PROFESSOR who has taught filmmaking and journalism at the University of Minnesota, Carleton College, Columbia College, and the American University in Bulgaria (2011-2015). She also teaches master classes & tutors emerging filmmakers around the world (Kosovo, Bulgaria, Moldova). In 2019, Melody started teaching the next generation of visual storytellers at Northwestern State University of Louisiana. She is the creator of "Documentary Boot Camp," a short-term intensive training program for various levels of filmmakers.

Melody also collaborates with companies, agencies and nonprofits to create authentic branded content. Clients include Best Buy, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, BBDO & National Geographic.

She is an advisory board member & instructor at Film North, founding member of Film Fatales MN, the founder of DocuClub MN, and mentor to many.  

More about Melody and to see trailers for most of her films at: www.frozenfeetfilm.com or www.melodygilbertvideo.com