Today we’d like to introduce you to Melissa Fox

Hi Melissa , so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?

I am an artist and documentary filmmaker in Chicago. I’ve lived and studied in Chicago my whole life. As a student of Chicago Public Schools, as a graduate of The University of Chicago at Illinois and as a working filmmaker in the city – I am honored to be shaped by Chicago.

I started my journey as a kid in CPS on the South-Side with excellent art teachers who encouraged me. They constantly put me in rooms with other talented artists and with any program the city would offer me as a youth. I studied with fellow artists as the first graduation class of Gallery 27 for the Arts, now a program of After School Matters. Back then I was learning 3D animation software with hopes of joining Pixar.

In college I studied with leading Criterion Collection artists and filmmakers at Kartemquin. They encouraged me to keep pointing my camera and making work. When the endless interviews for PA positions and internships on major motion pictures failed to pan out in both opportunities and in compensation – I found a small event media production company on the North-Side of Chicago. To those that grew up in the city, they know the disparities of moving from one side to the other. They might was well be different countries.

At Fig Media I completed an unpaid internship that lead to some contract work. That’s where I dug in. I took any opportunity they would give me and back then it was filming weddings. It was the only work I could find during the recession and the only place that gave a woman a camera and put her in charge. It helped that I owned my own rig and was motivated to learn. I spent the better part of a decade among the wealthiest our city has to offer, while going home to make meager meals and scrape together enough money to pay bills. Documenting opulent events and experiencing wealth for the first time was hard. Honestly, I am still sorting through the class issues that swirl inside my head. Being an artist gives me a front row seat to spaces I’d never have access to otherwise and while I reach for stability for myself – I am often conflicted at the nuances of what that means. The inequities I experienced growing up among the diverse in our city are but a whisper to the events that take place in the ivory towers. I had to learn to engage with both to survive as a an artist. So, while weddings paid the bills, I used the rest of my time to build portfolio in other areas – hoping to transition out of events and into more narrative spaces.

That’s when I got the opportunity to make a short film through fig media, unpaid of course, for a non-profit in Chicago. Back then it was called “Rock for Kids,” and they taught music in public schools to fill the gaps left by a decade of disinvestment in the arts. This project took me back to my roots. To the places and spaces that shaped me. I was hooked. I slowly worked my way out of events building a non-profit roster. Moving from community to community – bringing those inequities forward with my camera. All of the above are moves and counter moves in a career that took countless mentors, teachers, collaborators, ass kickers, friends and family to make move. While most of my successes I earned through blood sweat and tears – I also had lots of motivators that kept me going when I needed it.

Today, I can proudly say that I own my own business while maintaining relationships with fig and previous collaborators I’ve collected over the years. Writing and directing short films in Chicago is a trailblazing effort at best. I constantly have to teach my clients about media bias, what it means for communities to have a say in how they are represented; and still I fight for them to be seen as human in rooms where trauma is sold to the highest paddle raise bidder. I question the ethics of participating in the non-profit spaces that made me stable daily. But the older I get, the more I realize that holding nuance is the key to growth. The binary thinking of my youth and my ideas of success have largely shifted. I am easing into my self-worth, negotiating unapologetically and pulling back from responsibilities I once carried that didn’t yield the results I hoped for. If I could go back in a time machine and talk to my younger self, I’d tell her to not beat herself up so much. That we are one talented witch and despite all the hardship we’ve navigated – we alchemize it all into a beautiful life that we are super proud of.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?

Hahahaha – no. Starting out in this world as a young woman, I had a car, a bed and a dog. I think I had a hundred bucks in my bank account, a mountain of student debt and no connections into the career I wanted to build. I decided that I’d just figure life out. I am still doing that. The inequities of this world held me back. I don’t have the luxury of funding for every project I want to build. I have to work hard to find clients and sell myself in a system that eliminates funding for the arts constantly. It has been anything but smooth. I’ve had to work part time jobs to support building portfolio. I took unpaid opportunities at the expense of my livelihood to get ahead. I pivot constantly.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?

My work is community lead and starts with listening sessions. I ask questions. A lot of them. I then collaborate with community members to tell their stories. Often times a non-profit positions their funders as the heroes of stories and portrays communities as in need of saving. My work flips that. Communities don’t need saving, they need partnership and it starts by allowing them to tell their own stories. My work is about trauma but it is full of joy. It is human centered. You’ll always learn about the humans in my films first before you hear about their life circumstances. You’ll hear about what they love, things they are interested in, what values they find important and when we talk about the societal traumas they’ve endured, we name the systems directly. That means some clients are not ready to confront the cultures of harm that exist in the non-profit sector. So I am not a collaborator for everyone. As someone who grew up in Chicago and knows how mass media portrays my city, I am passionate about correcting those harmful narratives. Chicago is full of beautiful and talented souls. I want the world to see them.

Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?

Nature, my husband, my dog, travel, friendship, a good film, painting watercolors, reading an excellent book, sipping coffee, playing with my nephew, campfire chats with my family, stargazing. I adore having the opportunity to immerse myself in unfamiliar cultures and practices. I think there is no right way to live on this earth and I delight in experiencing all of it with humility.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.melissafoxmedia.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/melissafoxmedia/

Image Credits

I took all of those.