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Frank Melli

Meet The Farmer TV, (now in 123rd episode),

which Melli founded with farmer Michael Clark, showcases the stories of local growers and other food producers, chefs, organizations and the markets they serve.

In the 90's Melli pioneered a series of interactive town hall meetings involving viewers in debates. Participants Jimmy Carter and Al Gore noted the influence these broadcasts had on influencing the Bush administration. Melli also partnered with Global University System and the NYC Board of Education to demonstrate e-learning. He is also an award winning producer for his work on environmental issues and work with homeless children.

Frank has lectured in universities and taught media literacy in NYC. Work with the natives defending the Brazilian rain forest is an ongoing long term process to which Melli continues to dedicate his life.

He produced and edited 62 yoga videos in India to show the medical benefits of yoga and continues to freelance as a broadcast engineer and TV News editor to WPIX/Tribune in NYC." - This quote is from JABA's "Meal Programs: Feeding a Crowd with Local Food" Award-winning
Latest Pro Bono Project: http://CiViLiTi.org

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More About Frank Melli and Melli Productions

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In 1982, Frank Melli started working in broadcast television at WNYC-TV channel 31, a PBS station in NYC.  Besides editing video of the news, and even some film, and developing the video library from a one person operation to a four person operation, he mainly focused on broadcast engineering in master control.  He also worked on the original Brazil New York series with George Augustine and also helped him launch the TV series Video Music Box with Ralph MacDaniels.

In 1986, Frank Melli started working with the then New York Rainforest Alliance NYRA, now Rainforest Alliance.  As this organization was being formed, Frank attended some of those early formation meetings with Daniel Katz and Kevin Usak, and then provided media services coordinating video documenting for archive purposes of their first conference at Hunter College.

In 1988 Frank Melli started working in solidarity with the Kayapo tribe of the southern amazon basin.  A petition of over 10,000 signatures and was given to the presidents of the United Nations and Brazil.  The petition called for the halt of the construction of the Altamira hydroelectric dam that was going to flood and destroy a large piece of the Amazon tropical rainforest.

In 1989 Frank helped promote and organize the first Amazon week in New York City with Amanaka'a.   He also co-produced a cultural event to raise awareness about the importance of saving the tropical rainforests with a Brazilian carnival ball at New York's well-known Roosevelt hotel - themed "Viva Amazonas".  That same year Melli also produced two events at New York's downtown environmental nightclub The Wetlands Preserve.  Those festivities showcased everything from environmental speakers (show photo of Kevin Usak co founder of NYRA) to eco mimes (look for other video) as well as a diversity of performances including some Brazilian music and dance.

In 1989 Melli co-produced a documentary with (Linda Ellerbee?) Teachers College Columbia University on GATT - The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. 

In 1990 for nine months, Frank produced "New York Beats" a radio show mixing music and eco messages broadcasting on 91.5 FM in the New York City tri-state area.  This show was hosted by the motivational inspiration Dr. T.  While Melli and his team was working on this project using music as an instrument for environmental messages, we began outreach and connected at a New Music seminar with Bobby Kennedy Jr., which was when he first showed interest in working with and helped in to collaborate with Melli and these efforts.

In 1991 Melli started a long-term partnership with EnviroVideo co-producing the TV series Enviro Close-Up with Karl Grossman. 

1992 Frank Melli, Robson Lemos and Vishnu Wood started producing a TV series called "Jazz On Tour".   It ran for one year on the Time Warner Cable system in New York City and was hosted by the gracious Clarence "CB" Bullard.  CB was the director of the jazz department at Atlantic Records for many years.   This series again used the mix of music with educational messages on the environment.

Also in 1991 and 92 Melli got heavily involved with the United Nation Earth Summit process implementing a media strategy including three teleconferences (town meetings), which were live interactive national town meetings over PBS.  The impact of these teleconferences were lauded by Vice President Al Gore in a letter he wrote stating:

"During the two years of preparatory negotiations and during the Earth's summit itself the Bush Administration blocked consensus on many of the issues being debated.  I believe that efforts such as the Earth Summit teleconferences did have some impact on the administration.  Without such efforts the obstruction and stubborn unwillingness to compromise by the Bush Administration would likely have been even worse."  - - Al Gore

These programs were produced by Frank Melli in collaboration with NWF, National Audubon Society, GreenPeace and other major environmental organizations, the United Nations. 

The non-governmental organizations community and the media during this process were using a letter writing campaign to get Bush to stop boycotting the UNCED Process.  Melli convinced the collaborating partners Turner Broadcasting the National Wildlife Federation and others to incorporate the Big Blue's strategy against the Bush administration's boycott on the UNCED Process.  This strategy used Western Union via a toll-free number to send verifiable postcards to the president at the White House encouraging him to participate in the Earth Summit process.  The film trailer PSA ran nationwide as well as on our 3rd teleconference and was voiced all over by James Earl Jones and music of David Bowie.

At the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit or ECO 92 as the manifestation later became known Melli produced a phenomenal video for the Global Forum, which was shown by surprise six times to the heads of state at the Official Earth Summit governments event across town.  Melli also provided creative, technical assistance and engineering troubleshooting for the Global Forum's International Media Center.   Also at the official Earth Summit in Rio Center, Melli helped Rachel Kyte by creating an impromptu team to save the day.  Melli expedited the administrative and logistical steps necessary to make the the first of a series of teleconferences get off with out a hitch, that were broadcast nationally in Brazil, to Italy and locally to the Global Forum.

In 1993 Melli co-produced with EnviroVideo the award-winning documentary "The Three Mile Island Revisited".   Also in 1993 sociologist Professor Pat Belcon co-authored an article called "Environmentalizing the Media". This article was about the work on how Melli was greening the press and teaching others by example to "be the media", was submitted as an entry for a new sociology college textbook teaching what other community-based organizations can learn from this experience.

In 1994 Frank Melli made history by implementing a media strategy exemplifying one of the most progressive uses of the media in history.  Part of the plan included a co-production with the National Wildlife Federation in the production of an interactive national town meeting for the United Nations Cairo Population Conference.  After observing informative guest speakers explain the process, the live program included a survey polling groups across the country, in which the audience participated. The survey results showed how the audience viewed family planning and reproductive healthcare.  These tabulated results were presented at the United Nations during the Preparatory Committee meeting of the conference strategically and historically adding the voices of thousands of viewers to the political process.  The results were also presented to the US Senate Bill Committee for Foreign Aid.  We believe this input had a direct impact on public policy in that the 1994 Congress approved it's largest allocation to date 595 million dollars for Family Planning and Reproductive Health Care.

Also in 1994 Frank Melli and Jeffrey Keating organized and filed comments in response to the FCC's call for comments for DBS - direct broadcast satellites, regarding the creation of the program "set aside" rules for non-commercial programming of an informational and educational nature.  Our comments were endorsed by organizations like the National Audubon Society and others.  Through this process we were recognized by the FCC as a National Program Supplier for direct broadcast satellites.  Around the same time, one of our Enviro Close-Up episodes, about the dangers of food irradiation, was shown at a regional public hearing in Maine.  After seeing our video the vote was successfully unanimous against food irradiation for that region.  In 1995 with EnviroVideo Frank co-produced the award-winning "Nukes In Space: the weaponization and nuclearization of the heavens" documentary. 

In 1996 Melli and Joao Luis Araujo recorded for a future a project "The Symphony of the Forest" which traditional Kyoto songs were arranged by maestro Laercio de Freitas and fused with Kayapo folklore.

In 1997 Melli worked at the United Nations Rio + 5 Commission for Sustainable Development in New York City and co-produced an event and video.  

In 1998 Melli used an environmental organization to file complaints against the Brazilian government for abusing the human rights of Paulinho Paiakan Kayapo in International Court and also presented the complaint to the United Nation's head of human rights. 

In 1999 Melli made his first trip to the Amazon Kayapo village of Aukre.  This indigenous community of the Kayapo people is located in the southern basin of the Amazon rainforest.  With the help of the Barbara Pyle Foundation, and a few others, we installed water pumps helping to reduce infant mortality and lower adult illnesses. The success of this pilot program, we believe, led to Brazil's national institute of health installing a larger clean water system for this village of Aukre.  The Kayapo owns the largest protected tract of tropical rainforest in the world, which is about the size of New Zealand.

Also in 1999 Melli and Araujo started the Kayapo Fashion Design Project.  This venture took centuries of traditional body paintings and  transformed them for the first time to over 30 canvases demonstrating graphically the beauty of the Amazon and the interconnectedness of the Kayapo with the forest and its creatures.

In 2000, Melli and Joao Luis Araujo started the Paiakan Legal Defense Fund.  This project was supported by a grant from the Rainforest Action Network, the Rainforest Alliance and other anonymous donors.  We believe, one of the processes of this project resulted in Brazil's National Institute of Health arranging healthcare services to the Kayapo people.

In 2001 Melli and Araujo, started the production of a documentary "Kayapo: Stone-Age Survivors"   During this production we made an anthropological discovery that changed the course of the production.  Also in 2001 Melli produced "Brasil New York" a television series mixing Brazilian jazz and world music with environmental messages.  The series has never been released.   Also in 2001, our 10-year co-production of Enviro Close-Up with Karl Grossman, began to broadcast nationwide on the Free Speech television, that reached over 25 million homes.

In 2001, Melli went to India and was the technical director / director of 62 Yoga videos showing the medicinal benefits of Yoga. Later Melli edited all of these and did DVD authoring to release the products.

In 2002 Frank Melli co-produced with Barbara Pyle "One Child One Voice", broadcasting the program globally eight times to over 3,000 TV stations in more than 150 countries.  In 2003 this program was nominated for an Emmy Award and won a total of 39 Awards altogether

In 2003 Melli created the Kayapo Children's Scholarship Fund, which assisted through 2017, young Kayapo's in their quest for education and their pursuit to help their people.

In 2004 Melli co-produced with Takeshi Utsumi two broadband events on International Video Conferencing for e-Learning, Tele-Medicine and Peace Gaming.

In 2006, Melli produced a sold out concert of Brazilian Jazz at Joe's Pub in NYC.

In 2008, Melli teamed up with farmer Michael Clark.  With Clark as the host, Melli did the rest and produced over 125 episodes of Meet The Farmer TV a sustainable agriculture TV series which broadcasted for six years on Free Speech TV nationwide.

In 2012 Melli created a partnership with the Stakeholder Forum and created a distribution system for Rio + 20 Earth Summit.  Returning to Rio de Janeiro 20 years later and captured and distributed many of the highlights.

In 2013, Melli was hired for the second time to LiveStream Global GAP's International event from Madrid.

In 2014, Integral Yoga Institute hired Melli who put together a video team to cover the Concert for Global Peace at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in NYC.

In 2016, Melli teamed up with Harris Haith and started PETN, Provide Empowerment TV Network.  AKA Provide TV, is a network channel made up of broad interests and hyper local channels.

in 2018, EnviroVideo, now Envision Environmental Media Center partnered with Melli to start producing new shows for Free Speech TV and PETN.

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