Yael Melamede
Directing
Biography
Melamede was born in New York City, while her mother, Israel Prize-winning architect Ada Karmi-Melamede, was a lecturer in the Department of Architecture at Columbia University. Her maternal uncle, the architect Ram Karmi, and her grandfather, the architect Dov Karmi. Following her sister and brother's enlistment in the army, her parents returned to Israel. Melamede decided to stay in the United States and enrolled in architecture studies at Yale University. In 1997, after working with her mother for a year and a half, she decided to abandon architecture and pursue filmmaking. She returned to New York City and studied film in an intensive six-week course at New York University. She began working as an intern, then as an assistant. In 2003, Melamede and Eva Kolodner founded the production company Salty Features; a few years later, her partner, Kolodner, left the company. The most expensive film she has produced is "Brief Interviews with Disgusting People," written and directed by John Krasinski (who plays Jim, the star of the series "The Office" with a budget of nearly five million dollars. It is an adaptation of the short story collection by David Foster Wallace. The film My Architect, which Melamede produced and directed by Nathaniel Kahn, was nominated for an Oscar in 2004. The film "Inocente" is directed by Sean and Andrea Payne. The protagonist of the film "Inocente" is fifteen-year-old Inocente, the daughter of illegal immigrants from Mexico. She was abused by her father and mother and has moved between thirty housing places for the past nine years, including: an abandoned warehouse, a homeless shelter, a public park and a friend's house. Despite the conditions in which she grew up, Inocente becomes a talented painter who sells her paintings at exhibitions, rents a one-room apartment, and for the first time in her life, she lives in her own apartment. Before the film was completed, the production budget ran out. To solve this, Melamed and her colleagues went on a public fundraising spree. She used the crowdfunding site "Kickstarter" and raised $52,000 from about 300 private donors. The film was screened at many film festivals and aired on MTV, which was one of its sponsors, during the initial fundraising phase. Melamed built a system of workshops around the film, in which students watch the film and, after the screening, are asked to draw a picture inspired by it. In 2024, her film "Ada - My Architect Mother" was released Yael Melamede is married to a British computer scientist, and they have one son.
Known For
Explore one of humanity’s most primal and destructive emotions – hate. At the heart of this timely series is the notion that if people begin to understand their own minds, they can find ways to work against hate and keep it from spreading.
Why We Hate
After her boyfriend mysteriously leaves her with little explanation, a doctoral candidate in anthropology at a prestigious East Coast university is left looking for answers as to what went wrong.
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
A couple checks into a suite in Las Vegas. In flashbacks we see that he's a computer whiz on the verge of becoming a dot.com millionaire, she's a lap dancer at a club. He's depressed, withdrawing from work, missing meetings with investors. He wants a connection, so he offers her $10,000 to spend three nights with him in Vegas, and she accepts with conditions. Is mutual attraction stirring?
The Center of the World
Seduced by a boy's affluent, seemingly idyllic family, a young girl goes to extremes to gain acceptance.
Evergreen
In Tel Aviv, activists gather weekly to demonstrate their opposition to the war in Gaza with a silent vigil for the children killed in Israeli attacks.
Children No More: Were and Are Gone
A writer awakens one day to find a strange but beautiful woman in bed with him. He quickly falls in love with her, thinking he has found his muse, but as time passes she becomes more and more unattainable.
The Inner Life of Martin Frost
Claire is sure of herself, her work and family, until — like a bad dream — her husband disappears, leaving a trail of puzzling secrets that shatter her certainty.
Claire in Motion
Celeste and Bam Bam escape their Midwest hometown for New York, and take on their high-school nemeses - the dictators of the world-famous Salon Mirage - while discovering that true beauty lies within.
Bam Bam and Celeste
Documentary exploring the human tendency to be dishonest. Inspired by the work of social scientist, Dan Ariely, the film interweaves personal stories, expert opinions, behavioral experiments, and archival footage to reveal how and why people lie.
(Dis)Honesty: The Truth About Lies
A deeply moving portrait of an architect tested by the impossible choices between career, country and motherhood
Ada: My Mother the Architect
The web is no longer secure, but NeuroLock™ can encrypt data using the human brain. Iris struggles to choose between unemployment and a job as a "neuro-messenger," a career with unwanted side effects.
Hollow
Follow the 50-year career of preeminent First Amendment lawyer Floyd Abrams. See how his landmark cases—from the Pentagon Papers to Citizens United to Clearview AI—helped define free speech as it is known today. Join Dan Abrams, Ari Melber, Nina Totenberg and more as they explore how Abrams' career has shaped major changes in law, public discourse and civic action since the 1960s.