MELISSA FERRARI

Melissa Ferrari is an experimental animator, nonfiction filmmaker, magic lanternist and scholar who seeks to acquaint folklore of the past with contemporary culture. Her practice engages with the politics of contemporary cryptozoology and skepticism, the history of phantasmagoria and documentary, and the mythification of current science and pseudoscience. Originally from Virginia, Melissa is now based in Los Angeles where she recently received an Experimental Animation M.F.A. from CalArts. Her films and magic lantern performances have been shown internationally in venues such as Hauser & Wirth, the Ottawa International Animation Festival, Ann Arbor Film Festival, Black Maria Film Festival, Slamdance Film Festival, Automata L.A. and the Imagine Science Film Festival.

Melissa’s scholarship focuses on the ethics and research methodologies of animated nonfiction filmmaking. She recently presented her research on animated documentaries at the Ecstatic Truth Symposium in Lisbon and the Society for Animation Studies conference in Montreal. Previously, Melissa worked as an animation artist at Dusty Studio in New York City, where her work was featured in The New York Times Op-Docs, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, Nautilus, TED Talks, PBS and the Hamburg International Short Film Festival. Melissa received a BA in Philosophy from Tufts University and a BFA focusing in animation and printmaking from The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.