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 feature documentary, “Determined: Fighting Alzheimer's,” which aired nationally on NOVA | PBS in 2022. 
 
Before that, she was Line Producer for the 2020 Oscar-winning documentary  “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). 
 
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. In 2025, "The Making of Sweet Charity," produced with her Production Master Class, earned an Ohio Valley Emmy. This short doc, about the technical theatre design of a CCM musical rom-com, is available on CCM's official YouTube channel.
 
Having taught short film production and writing for media, she now leads the Production Master Class and The Fundamentals of Story at CCM. Melissa is also Managing Producer of CCM Recording Productions, where she co-creates music performance videos, promos, and documentaries with a talented student crew.