Melissa Godoy

Storytelling through live performances and media is a pursuit that has taken Melissa Godoy into fascinating parts of the world and depths of the human spirit. Cincinnati Magazine recently featured Godoy about her experiences as a filmmaker and her latest documentary, “Determined: Fighting Alzheimer's,” which aired nationally on NOVA | PBS in 2022. This film, about the humanity in science, follows three women who donate their brains and body to a long-term Alzheimer’s medical study.
 
Before that, she was Line Producer for the 2020 Oscar-winning documentary feature “American Factory” (Netflix) by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert and its prequel “The Last Truck” (HBO). Godoy was also Line Producer for Bognar and Reichert’s “9to5: The Story of a Movement” (Independent Lens, Netflix) and the Primetime Emmy Award-winning series “A Lion in the House” (Independent Lens/Netflix). 
 
Cincinnati Opera lovers may be familiar with her camera work on two short documentaries, “Making Morning Star” by Bognar and Reichert and “Meet John Doe,” a collaboration with CCM Opera Professor Emeritus Robin Guarino. Both documentaries take viewers behind-the-scenes during the creative development of the two operas at Opera Fusion: New Works. In 2022, she produced/directed "Robeson Rediscovered: The Making of an Opera" with her Production Master Class.

Godoy was a cinematographer for “Election Day” by Katy Chevigny (POV) and for “Sparkle,” which was about the comeback of a dancer at the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company. She was a cinematographer for Andrea Torrice’s “Trees in Trouble” (PBS World Channel) and Cinematographer/Editor for "The Lincoln School Story" (WOSU/PBS).
 
Godoy’s directing includes a feature documentary about creative aging, “Do Not Go Gently,” with narrator Walter Cronkite, which aired on PBS stations for 12 years though American Public Television. One of the people in the film that she was fortunate to meet was Leo Ornstein, the godfather of modern music.

Godoy has received three Regional Emmys — one for work on “Classical Quest” with CCM Violin Professor Kurt Sassmannshaus and the Starling Chamber Orchestra. “Classical Quest” aired on 32 U.S. public television stations and abroad. In 2025, "The Making of Sweet Charity," produced with her Production Master Class, earned an Ohio Valley Emmy in the Arts & Entertainment category. This short documentary about the technical theatre design of a colorful CCM musical rom-com, "Sweet Charity", is available on CCM's official YouTube channel.
 
She has also taught as a residency artist with the Ohio Arts Council’s Arts Learning Program and as an adjunct instructor at the University of Cincinnati and Cincin