FILM | COMMUNITY | ACTION
CHANGING THE WORLD
ONE STORY AT A TIME
About Michelle
Michelle Melles works as a communications and outreach professional with a background in story editing, story producing, writing, directing and impact producing. She has over twenty years of experience producing unscripted television for broadcast, streaming, and the web. She has worked in many facets of TV production and content creation, from entertainment writing and segment-producing for a daily, nationally-broadcast TV show to working as a story editor and story producer for documentary series that are broadcast and streamed internationally. Under her banner, Parallel Vision Pictures, her mission is to harness the transformative power of documentary filmmaking and multi-dimensional storytelling to unite people, evoke empathy, challenge norms, inspire, and foster a more just and equitable world.
Early in her career, Michelle worked on the multiple award-winning Canadian documentary series SexTV (for ten seasons), where she delved into diverse global perspectives on sexuality, gender, and human rights. This experience enriched her storytelling and broadened her understanding of complex social issues.
Drunk on Too Much Life (2021) is Michelle's first feature-length independent documentary (co-produced and co-written with her husband Pedro Orrego, under his banner Parallel Vision Productions). This film follows their 21-year-old daughter’s mind-opening journey from locked-down psych wards and diagnostic labels towards expansive worlds of creativity, connection, and greater meaning. When psychiatric medications fail to provide the healing the family had hoped for, they embark on a journey to explore new ways to understand and ease Corrina's mental struggles.
Meeting the likes of renowned trauma specialist Dr. Gabor Maté and other cutting-edge voices, the family begins to question the widespread idea that mental illness is merely "faulty brain chemistry." They learn the myriad ways that madness has meaning that goes far beyond brain chemistry and find the tools to forge a new path towards recovery.
This film is for anyone who’s ever felt like they don’t belong. It’s an invitation to rethink mental illness—not as something to fear, but as something that might hold wisdom and even beauty.
Drunk on Too Much Life will be broadcast on PBS through the NETA in the U.S.A. starting May 2025 for Mental Health Awareness Month. You can watch the trailer, learn more, and stream the film through New Day Films.
Impact Producing
Michelle is a member and launch coach with the venerated U.S.-based filmmaker-run distribution company New Day Films that has provided social issue documentaries to educators since 1971. New Day sustains the ideas that inspired its formation—collaboration, hope, and social change.
She has gained invaluable experience at New Day Films designing impact campaigns that foster deep engagement, inspire meaningful dialogue, and motivate positive community action. She and her team design and implement outreach, marketing, and distribution strategies with the goal of inspiring lasting social change by influencing behaviors, shifting perceptions, guiding decision-making, encouraging institutional reforms, and fostering community building.
Areas of Focus:
- Mental Health, Psychology, and Social Work
- Trauma Studies
- Gender & Sexuality
- Women's Studies
- Arts & Community Activism
- Social Movements and Protest
- Marriage and Family
- Religion, Theology, and Ethics
- History
- Science and Technology
- Hospice Care, Death, and Bereavement
Background and Education
Michelle Melles holds a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Documentary Media from The Creative School at Toronto Metropolitan University (Gold Medal, 2021, summa cum laude); received the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) grant from the Canadian Government for her work in documentary filmmaking and mental health (2021), and holds a BA from the University of Toronto (high distinction; faculty scholar). Of Dutch descent and married to a Chilean, she is both a Canadian and U.S. citizen, offering a unique international perspective in her work.