Melissa Hacker made her directing and producing debut with the documentary My Knees Were Jumping; Remembering The Kindertransports, which was short-listed for Academy Award nomination, seen in festivals, television, and universities worldwide. Melissa’s video Venus was featured in the gallery exhibit "Objects of Devotion and Desire: Medieval Relic to Contemporary Art," and received accolades in the New York Times review. Her three channel video Letters Home screened at Stranger than Fiction, the NY, Washington DC, and Toronto Jewish Film Festivals. Melissa is directing Ex Libris, an animated documentary on her Austrian grandfather’s life and bookplate collection. Honors received include a Fulbright Artist-in-Residence award in Vienna, and residencies at Yaddo, VCCA, Playa, Willapa Bay AIR, Escape to Create, Saltonstall, Digital Arts Studios in Belfast NI, Millay, and a 2022 LABA fellowship.

Melissa edited the Academy Award nominated documentaries Sister Rose's Passion and The Collector of Bedford Street,