Melis Birder is one of the founders of inHouse projects that realize independent media works.

Moved to USA, after her native studies in Turkey, she has worked as an educator and realized video programs in the low income neighborhoods of New York for about 5 years. During the same period, she has directed documentaries for social service agencies; “Missing Bird” was about the effects of September 11th on the Muslim and Arab population of New York. Crossing Brooklyn commissioned by Brooklyn Public Library was about 3 teenagers from different neighborhoods of Brooklyn.

In 2005 Birder has directed her first award-winning independent documentary: The Tenth Planet “A Single Life in Baghdad” that she filmed in Baghdad. The film has participated to many film festivals around the globe.

In 2006, she received the Sundance Documentary Grant for her current project The Visitors.

Birder now lives between Istanbul and New York and undertakes different documentary projects in those countries.

http://tenth-planet.org/
http://filmist.org/
http://www.visitorsdocumentary.com/