From the beginning, Melinda James wanted to put women and underrepresented communities at the forefront of her filmmaking. For her thesis project she focused on the food justice movement in the Oakland area, featuring the African American community. After graduating from the UC Santa Cruz Social Documentation graduate program, James was hired at GoPro, editing and shooting “people doing amazing things all over the world.”
She then moved to Pandora as an editor and camera operator, interviewing and filming musicians for branded content for the streaming music service’s social media. In December 2017, James left the Bay Area for Los Angeles, where she continues to grow as a filmmaker, both for corporate clients and her own documentary projects.