Director & Producer + Cinematographer & Sound Recordist

Melissa Gregory Rue is a film writer, director, and producer based in Louisville, Kentucky.   She grew up on a cattle and tobacco farm in Bourbon County, Ky. long before smoking was out and Bourbon was cool. Melissa earned her M.A. in English Literature from Portland State University and a certificate in filmmaking from The Northwest Film Center. After three decades in Portland, Oregon that included working as an English professor for 20 years, studying film production, and countless outdoor adventures, she moved back to Kentucky at the beginning of the pandemic to be closer to family.  Melissa’s dramas and documentaries have screened in film festivals around the world. Her feature documentary, LIVE OUT LOUD, premiered at Dances With Films in Hollywood in 2022.  The movie was awarded Best Human Rights Film by the Amsterdam International Film Festival and Best Civil Rights Themed Film by New York’s IO Film Festival.  Shot over one year, LIVE OUT LOUD tells the stories of three unhoused people in Portland, Oregon who begin to heal from childhood trauma by learning to make films in a grant-funded class. LIVE OUT LOUD has been signed for worldwide distribution by Porter + Craig Film and Media in Beverly Hills and is now available for streaming on Vudu and Spectrum. In addition to working on her own projects, Melissa co-produced Connectivity Project (2020), a documentary series that explores how our stories and actions can have powerful ripple effects around the world.  She served as a juror, vice president and then chair of the McMinnville Short Film Festival from 2021-2023 and helped relaunch Oregon Doc Camp with Women in Film - Portland many years ago.   As a filmmaker living with chronic Lyme and autoimmune disease, Melissa is eager to get started on her next documentary that will advocate for better access to treatment for the many people living with those disabilities. 

www.melissagregoryrue.com

Editor & Sound Designer

Kelley Baker is an Oregon native and graduate of USC’s film school. An author and an independent filmmaker, his films have aired on PBS, Canadian and Australian television, and have shown at film festivals around the world. In addition to his own films he was the sound designer on six of Gus Van Sant's features including, My Own Private Idaho, Good Will Hunting, and Finding Forrester, and Todd Haynes’ Far From Heaven. Kelley also did the sound on Will Vinton’s TheAdventures of Mark Twain, and three Claymation specials for CBS.

www.angryfilmmaker.com

Sound Mastering

Marc Rose is an Emmy award winning sound designer and composer living in Portland, Oregon. Learning the audio craft early on in the late 1970s on a syndicated radio drama series he for public radio called Dry Smoke and Whispers Radio Theatre, a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts propelled the program into wider recognition and was then distributed to over 50 markets in the United States as well as to three countries. Since that time Marc has worked with film makers, theatrical companies, broadcast and satellite radio stations to produce a variety of award winning audio and musical content.

Graphic Design/Animation

Katie Cote is a Louisville native and a graduate of Savannah College of Art and Design. For Live Out Loud, she did the graphic design for the end credits and animation of the title and name cards. She also did animation for another one of Melissa Rue’s films Esperanza‘s Turn. Katie is a multidisciplinary creative who has worked as a graphic designer, illustrator, motion media artist, photographer, and creative writer. Her artwork has already made its mark on album covers, children’s books, branding, animation, and band merchandise.

www.katiecote.com

Audience Research/Outreach Assistant

Jesselynn is a filmmaker and editor who focuses on experimental and surreal projects. She has seen every episode of 30 Rock multiple times, still purchases DVDs, and refuses to watch trailers before watching a film. You can find her primarily indoors, listening to podcasts or punk rock.

Community Outreach Assistant

Lucy is a student studying psychology at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. She grew up in Louisville, Kentucky and hopes to become a child psychologist working in a city like Chicago or Washington DC. In her free time, she enjoys live music, watching films, and reading books.

Additional Camera

Nick Bruno cut his teeth, like many film programmers of his generation, behind the counter of multiple video stores, first as the manager and film buyer for Five Star Video in Berkeley, California and then as a clerk at Portland, Oregon's Video Verite. He spent much of the past decade promoting and curating for the Portland International Film Festival and Northwest Film Center where, as the sole programmer for the festival's PIFF After Dark sidebar and the year-round Genrified: Cult & Other Curiosities series, his programmatic focus leaned heavily on genre cinema. From 2019 until the pandemic interrupted the art house landscape, Nick served as the Public Cinema Programs Manager for SIFF Cinema and as a programmer for the Seattle International Film Festival. In September of 2021, Nick boarded the Film Festival Flix team as Director of Communications & PR for their virtual festival hosting platform and streaming services. He holds a degree in Interdisciplinary Studies with a focus in Film Production, Social Philosophy, and Media Studies from Marylhurst University.