Melissa Hibbard

Melissa Hibbard is a photographer and filmmaker. She earned her BA in Moving Image Arts in 1996 from the College of Santa Fe where she studied documentary filmmaking. Upon graduation, she moved to Los Angeles and worked in the film industry as an art director on feature films for five years. Her photographs have been exhibited in the US and abroad over the past 6 years. She has produced three documentaries on video. "Breaking Bread" (2000) which premiered on PBS and "Sir Alfred of Charles de Gaulle Airport" (2001) have been well received by the media and worldwide audiences. "Shahrbanoo" (2002) first premiered on PBS where it received among the highest ratings for an independently produced documentary. She also co-produced the feature film "Day Break" (2005) that premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and has won several awards around the world. In 2003, she co-established a non-profit organization - ArteEast - its mission statement to promote the arts and cultures of the Middle East and its worldwide diasporas in the United States; she was a board member and the ArteEast Online Director through 2007. She is currently producing a new documentary in Iran, entitled "Finding Home".