filmmaker // animator
The Arc of Oblivion illuminates the strange world of archives, record-keeping, and memory through a filmmaker's quixotic quest to build an ark in Maine.
Sandbox Films presents a Wicked Delicate production
The Arc of Oblivion
A film by Ian Cheney
Executive Producers Greg Boustead, Jessica Harrop, Robyn Metcalfe, & Werner Herzog
Produced by Meredith DeSalazar, Manette Pottle, Rebecca Taylor
Director of Photography Ezra Wolfinger
Animations by Melissa McClung
Original Score by Colin Cheney
The Arc of Oblivion illuminates the strange world of archives, record-keeping, and memory through a filmmaker's quixotic quest to build an ark in Maine.
Sandbox Films presents a Wicked Delicate production
The Arc of Oblivion
A film by Ian Cheney
Executive Producers Greg Boustead, Jessica Harrop, Robyn Metcalfe, & Werner Herzog
Produced by Meredith DeSalazar, Manette Pottle, Rebecca Taylor
Director of Photography Ezra Wolfinger
Animations by Melissa McClung
Original Score by Colin Cheney
Peer into the gallery to discover collages, flipbooks, and moving images from the artist’s cabinet. Melissa made the work from 2020 - 2025, while she was otherwise occupied with teaching, animating for a feature documentary, resting, growing a human, laboring, breastfeeding, mothering, dreaming of her next film project, dreaming of a better world, walking in the woods, distance running, swimming in rivers and oceans, and connecting with creative friends.
Curiosities by Melissa McClung
Solo exhibition in October 2025
The Barn Door Gallery at 33 Hawley
Collages, flipbooks, moving images, sculptural work
A girl and a magical marble save the world from total destruction.
All the Marbles
Written, Directed, & Edited by Melissa McClung
Starring Lucia Dingo-Early & Louis Farrick
Produced by Nina Alexander & Melissa McClung
Production Design by Nina Alexander
Sound Design & Original Music by Andrew Oedel
Director of Photography Ari Hayes
In Louie’s shop, antique objects get a second life— and come to life.
Louie’s Antiques
Filmed & Edited by Melissa McClung
Featuring Louis Farrick
Post-production Sound & Sound Mix by Andrew Oedel
On March 21, 2021, Elon Musk tweeted, "I am accumulating resources to help make life multiplanetary & extend the light of consciousness to the stars." In July 2021, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson each took separate trips to the edge of space in privately-built rockets. Instead of directing their vast resources towards sustaining life on Earth, billionaires are looking for an escape hatch. But will life among the stars really be as magical as it sounds?
In Elevator of Earthly Destruction, I repurpose archival footage from the American treasure trove, the Prelinger Archives, to explore Earth's crises past, present and (retro)future.
Elevator of Earthly Destruction
Film by Melissa McClung
with archival footage supplied by Internet Archive at archive.org
in association with Prelinger Archives
Sound Mix by Andrew Oedel
Music Videos & Documentaries
All work directed & edited by Melissa McClung
MELISSA McCLUNG is a filmmaker and animator based in Hadley, Ma. Melissa was nominated for 2024 Cinema Eye Honors in Visual Design for her work on the science documentary, The Arc of Oblivion, directed by Ian Cheney and produced by Wicked Delicate & Sandbox Films with Executive Producer Werner Herzog. Melissa has above-the-line credits on films that have premiered at SXSW, CPH:DOX, Ann Arbor Film Festival, and Maryland Film Festival, among many others. In her multidisciplinary work, she often finds herself gravitating towards themes of childhood, wonder, women/mothers, and nature, with imaginative retro-scifi motifs. She makes work in New England, solo and with regional collaborators.
Melissa co-owns Ghost Hit Recording Studio in West Springfield with her husband, audio engineer Andrew Oedel. Melissa earned her MFA in Film from Vermont College of Fine Arts and her BA from Vassar College. Melissa is the recipient of Vassar’s 2024 W.K. Rose Fellowship. She has taught in the Department of Art at UMass Amherst, and she is currently a Professor of the Practice in the Film, Media, and Communications Department at Wheaton College in Norton, Ma.
Melissa’s animations are
“casually magical” - Screen Daily
“delightful” -Reel News Daily
Contact: melissa.e.mcclung@gmail.com
