FELLOWS
Satellite Fellows 2020
Nikhil Melnechuk
A FILMMAKER CHASES POETRY
A New York filmmaker connects the city’s poetry to its movie cameras.
FILMMAKER Melnechuk is an award-winning director and producer. His short film Jack and Jill won the Carnegie Mellon and Malta International Film Festivals, and Something Happened won New York Shorts International. Melnechuk is currently developing a feature adaptation of Jerry Thompson’s adventure novel Bridge to Alta Vista for Winding Roads Productions.
ACTOR Melnechuk’s feature debut was playing the lead in Malik Isasis’ time travel romance The Elegant Clockwork of the Universe. He recently played in RZA’s Love Beats Rhymes and in Sara Colangelo’s Sundance winner The Kindergarten Teacher. His latest outing is Amos Efrat’s Twice At Once, currently in festivals.
POET Melnechuk’s poems have appeared in films—RZA’s Love Beats Rhymes and Malik Isasis’ Lena’s Complicated Machine, and in print—Latexo Beat, The Brooklyn Rail, Ostranenie, and Poet Sculpture: Free, and has appeared at MoMA, Ideas City, MASS MoCA, The 92nd Street Y, and The Queens Museum. Melnechuk was Executive Director of Bowery Poetry from 2013-2017, and created and hosted its signature open mic, PoetNY.