Melissa Eidson
Adjunct Associate Professor
Biography
Melissa (Eme) Eidson is an Adjunct Associate Professor, and makes documentary and short narrative films.
Her first documentary El Barrio, about life in the Tepito neighborhood of Mexico City, was screened at the Berlin & Cannes film festivals, and won Best Documentary and Founder’s Choice Award at the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival. Her second documentary, They Are Not Invisible/No Son Invisibles: Maya Women and Microfinance featuring Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, was screened at Cannes, Torino, Roma, Guadalajara, Tehran, Seattle Latino, Del Rey Beach, and Dubai film festivals, and has been acquired by many university libraries, in the Ethnographic Collection of Alexander Street streaming video. Her 3rd documentary, Slow Fashion, is about cultural appropriation of indigenous designs and ethical practices in the fashion industry, and was filmed in Oaxaca, Mexico; Jaipur, India and Vientiane, Laos. It premiered at the International Human Rights Festival: this human world film, in Vienna, Austria December 2023 and won the Film Heals award at the Manhattan Film Festival July 2023 along with other awards: Impact Doc Awards: Award of Merit: Contemporary Issues / Awareness Raising; Accolade Global Film Competition: Award of Recognition, Liberation / Social Justice / Protest / Contemporary Issues / Awareness Raising; Green Academy Awards: Achievement award. It was also screened at ORIGINAL 2023 in Mexico City (invited by Mexico’s Minister of Culture) and Morritz Feeddog fashion film festival in Barcelona, Spain March 2024 with some press in Spain’s La Vanguardia journal. There will be an upcoming screening of Slow Fashion this October 2024 at the Edward James Museum in Xilitla in San Luis Potosi, Mexico.
Eidson’s short narrative AURA just won the experimental short film award at French Riviera Film Festival in Cannes March 2024.
Her next documentary/short narrative project, Metamorphosis, is currently in production in Jalpa, Mexico and Tanzania, East Africa.
Education
SMU undergrad
BADA, Baliol College, Oxford University
MA: English Literature CUNY: Hunter College