Jamie Meltzer

Bio

Professor Jamie Meltzer teaches in the M.F.A. Program in Documentary Film. His feature documentary films have been broadcast nationally on PBS and have screened at numerous film festivals worldwide. His latest short documentary, not even for a moment do things stand still, premiered at SXSW in March 2022, winning a Special Jury Mention in Visual Reflection. The film provides an observational glimpse into a COVID-19 art installation, dropping into intimate moments of people honoring their loved ones, and interrogating the role of mourning and closure during an unfolding tragedy. It was published as a New York Times Op-Doc in April 2022. Huntsville Station, a short documentary film directed with Chris Filippone, was featured as a New York Times Op-Docs and premiered at Berlinale and SXSW in 2020. The film observes the scene at a bus station - where dozens of inmates just released on parole take in their first moments of freedom before taking the bus home. True Conviction (broadcast on Independent Lens in May 2018), a co-production of ITVS and the recipient of a Sundance Institute grant and a MacArthur grant, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival where it received a Special Jury Mention in the Best Documentary Feature category. Informant (2012), about a revolutionary activist turned FBI informant, was released in theaters in the US and Canada in Fall 2013 by Music Box Films and KinoSmith. Previous films include: Off the Charts: The Song-Poem Story (Independent Lens, 2003), about the shadowy world of song-poems, Welcome to Nollywood (PBS Broadcast, 2007), an investigation into the wildly successful Nigerian movie industry, and La Caminata (2009), a short film about a small town in Mexico that runs a simulated border crossing as a tourist attraction.

Academic Appointments

• Professor, Art & Art History

Honors & Awards

• Special Jury Mention for Visual Reflection, not even for a moment do things stand still, SXSW (2022)
• Non-Fiction Vanguard Award, San Francisco DocFest (2017)
• Special Jury Mention, Best Documentary, True Conviction, Tribeca Film Festival (2017)
• Grand Prix Award, Huntsville Station, International Competition Kyiv International Short Film Festival (2020)
• Best Short Award, Huntsville Station, Docaviv Film Festival (2020)
• Best Editing Award, Informant, Salem Film Festival, Salem, MA (2013)
• Grand Jury Award, Informant, Sebastopol Film Festival, Sebastopol, CA (2013)
• Grand Jury Award, Informant, DocNYC, Manhattan, NY (2012)
• Best Feature Documentary Award, Informant, Austin Film Festival, Austin, TX (2012)

Boards, Advisory Committees, Professional Organizations

• Grantee/ Director, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Media Grant (2015 - 2016)
• Grantee, Sundance Institute Documentary Film Grant (2015 - 2016)
• Faculty Advisor, REVS Documentary (2013 - 2013)
• Educational Liaison, Between the San Francisco Film Society and Stanford’s M.F.A. Documentary Film Program (2013 - 2013)
• Jury Member, Short film Jury for the Independent Documentary Association (2012 - 2012)
• Jury Member, Short film Jury for the Independent Documentary Association (2013 - 2013)

Professional Education

• Bachelor of Arts, Vassar College, English and Film (1996)
• Master of Fine Arts, San Francisco State University, Cinema (2002)