Melinda Raebyne

Melinda Raebyne is an award-winning Taiwanese American filmmaker. She lives and works in Washington state, but her work spans countries across the world. Melinda believes in our universal desire to belong and to be treated with dignity and compassion. She is drawn to and tells stories where understanding, compassion, collective action and human resilience make the world a better place to live for everyone. As an independent filmmaker, Melinda works intentionally with communities to share local stories that have global resonance and impact. Her latest documentary, Ellos Gritan Libertad (They Scream Freedom) (2023) received the Best Documentary Director award (International category) at the 2023 Social World Film Festival in Rome2023. In addition, it won the 2023 Tacoma Film Festival for Best PNW Documentary and the 2023 Free Speech Film Festival, Award Film. Other award-winning projects include Stories of Us: Camp Second Chance (2019), and Asylum (2016). An advocate for independent filmmaking, she is affiliated with the Meaningful Movies Project, Washington Lawyers for the Arts, and the Seattle Latino Film Festival. Melinda is a Firelight Media Spark Fund grant recipient and was in the leadership cohort of the Jane’s Fellowship Program, a program of the Russell Family Foundation along with formally serving on the Washington Filmworks Leadership Council.