Melissa Langer is an artist, Director and Emmy-nominated Cinematographer based in Philadelphia. Her work as a Director of Photography includes PRAY AWAY (Netflix + Multitude Films) and the acclaimed Netflix series CHEER, for which she received a primetime Emmy nomination in Cinematography. She also served as the DP for PRINCIPLES OF PLEASURE (Netflix), a 3-part docuseries that examines the world of female, transgender, and non-binary sexual pleasure, and its surrounding lack of understanding in modern science. She was also the Cinematographer for ATTLA (a 2019 co-production of Vision Maker Media and ITVS), NOT EVEN FOR A MOMENT DO THINGS STAND STILL (NY Times Op-Docs), and THE POWER OF KINDNESS (Facebook), featuring Lady Gaga, Dr. Alfie Breland-Noble, and a group of young people in conversation about kindness and mental health. Among others, She is currently lensing HOLLYWOOD DOES ABORTION, a deep dive into the often misleading depictions of abortion in film and television, and UNTITLED CRUISE TOURISM FILM, which explores the real world implications of an industry selling fantasy vacations at sea.
In her work as a Director, she draws from methods of expanded and experimental cinema, offering non-linear, layered portraits of systems, power and human-made phenomena. She is currently directing her debut feature, IN EXCESS (Jihlava New Visions Forum - U.S. DOCS 2023), a portrait of an American city and its trash. Through a single city’s ecosystem, the film traces echoes of broader American society, and of the cost of the drive toward power and efficiency — what’s gained, what’s lost, and what’s wasted.
She is a Cinema Eye Honors Nominee in Nonfiction Short Filmmaking and her films, including MY ALEPPO, have premiered at festivals internationally, including Telluride Film Festival, SXSW, San Francisco Film Festival (New Visions Award), IDFA (ARRI IDFA Award), ZagrebDox (Movies that Matter Award), and MoMA’s Doc Fortnight. She is a member of Vox Populi, Philadelphia’s oldest artist-run collective, where she exhibits her own installation work and curates year-round video/film exhibitions and performances. She holds an MFA in Documentary Film & Video from Stanford University and a BA in History from Carleton College.
melissa.a.langer@gmail.com
@melissaalanger