Frank Melli

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Frank Melli being the media and is an [award-winning] [http://www.natassoutheast.tv/NATAS/Emmy2003Winners.html] TV producer, media activist and strategist. He cares very much about the environment and has dedicated his resources to social reform for 20 years so far.

Environmental and Media Activist

In 1987 the idea for Green Sphere (GS) began, and was incorporated in 1988 with the help of Columbia University's Law Clinic. Its first action in solidarity with the Kayapo tribe of the Amazon basin, was a petition of over ten thousand 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’s tropical rainforest. [See an abstract of a community profile NEWSDAY did on Frank Melli by clicking here.] [http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/newsday/access/353779321.html?dids=353779321:353779321&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Jul+2%2C+2003&author=Sheila+McKenna&pub=Newsday&edition=&startpage=A.42&desc=NEWSDAY+QUEENS+PROFILE%3A+Frank+Melli]

In the beginning, talks with seniors were given by Jeffrey Selman, Green Sphere’s first president and co-founder. In 1989, GS helped organize the first Amazon Week in New York City and coproduced 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, GS had two events at New York City’s downtown environmental nightclub, The Wetlands Preserve. The festivities covered from environmental speakers to eco-mimes, as well as a diversity of performances, including some Brazilian music and dance.

In 1989, GS co-produced a documentary with Teachers College on the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). For 9 months in 1990, we produced “NY Beats” a radio show mixing music and eco-messages broadcasting on 91.5FM in the New York City tri-state area hosted by Dr. T.

This is when Bobby Kennedy Jr. first showed interest in working with and helping Green Sphere. In 1991, we started a long-term partnership with EnviroVideo, co-producing the TV series “Enviro Close-Up.” Later that year, GS lent a green hand in the promotion of a cabaret music series of Brazilian Divas at the Ball Room produced by Robson Lemos.

In 1992 Melli, Lemos, and Vishnu Wood started producing a TV series called “Jazz On Tour.” It ran for one year on Time Warner Cable in New York City, and was hosted by the gracious Clarence “C.B.” Bullard, who had been the director of the jazz department at Atlantic Records for many years. Again the mix of music with educational messages on the environment was used for the format.

In 1991 and 1992 Melli got heavily involved in the United Nations' Earth Summit process, implementing a media strategy including three teleconferences which were: live interactive national town meetings over PBS. The impact of these teleconferences was lauded by Vice President Al Gore in a letter he wrote stating:

These programs were produced by Green Sphere’s Frank Melli in collaboration with major environmental organizations, the United Nations and the non-governmental organizations community and the media. During this process, it was Melli that convinced the collaborating partners Turner Broadcasting, the National Wildlife Federation and others to incorporate the Big Blue strategy against the Bush Administrations 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 teleconference and was voiced over by James Earl Jones.

In Rio De Janeiro at the “Eco 92,” as the manifestation later became known, Melli produced a phenomenal video for the Global Forum, which was shown by surprise 6 times to the heads of state at the Earth Summit across town. Melli also provided technical assistance and trouble shooting for Global Forum’s international media center. Also at the Earth Summit itself in the Rio Center, Melli coordinated and directed a series of teleconferences that were broadcast nationally in Brazil, to Italy and locally to the Global Forum.

In 1993, we Co-Produced with EnviroVideo the award winning documentary: "Three Mile Island Revisited."

Also in 1993, Professor Pat Belcon co-authored an article called: “Environmentalizing the Media.” This article about Green Sphere was submitted as an entry for a new sociology college textbook teaching what other community-based organizations can learn from Green Sphere’s experience.

In 1994, Frank Melli made history by implementing a media strategy exemplifying one of the most democratic and progressive uses of the media in history. Part of the plan included a co-production with the National Wildlife Federation in the production of a national town meeting for the United Nations’ Cairo Population Conference. After observing informative guest speakers explain the process, the live program included a survey in which the audience participated. The results showed how the audience viewed family planning and reproductive health care. These results were presented at the UN during the preparatory committee meeting of the conference strategically adding the voices of thousands of viewers to the political process. It was also presented to the US Senate Bill Committee for Foreign Aid. We believe this input had a direct impact on public policy, and in 1994 Congress approved it’s largest allocation to date ($595 million) for family planning and reproductive health care.

Also in 1994, Green Sphere under the coordination of Frank Melli and Jeffrey Keating organized and filed comments in response to the FCC's call for comments for Direct Broadcast Satellites regarding the creation of the “Program Set Aside Rules” for noncommercial programming of an informational and educational nature. Our comments were endorsed by organizations like the National Audubon Society and others. Through this process, Green Sphere was recognized by the FCC as a national program supplier for direct broadcast satellites. Green Sphere was one of only two organizations to respond to the FCC’s call for comments who filed in the interest of the people. Subsequently Green Sphere’s comments were used by the U. S. Justice Department’s attorney Jake Lewis in Federal Court against the cable companies and in favor of the people. The other organization individual to file comments to the FCC later helped create the Free Speech Television network.

Around the same time, one of our Enviro Close-Up episodes which focused on the dangers of food irradiation was shown at a regional public hearing in Main. After seeing our video, the vote was successfully unanimous against food irradiation for that region. And in 1995 with EnviroVideo we co-produced the award winningFact|date=August 2008 "Nukes In Space: the Weaponization and Nuclearization of the Heavens" documentary [(click the @ 2 here and go to line 94 to see our citation for the award).] [http://www.worldfest.org/downloads/WFH1995.xls]

In 1996, Melli and Joao Luis Araujo made a demo for a future project: “The Symphony of the Forest’” where traditional Kayapo songs were arranged by maestro Laercio de Freitas and fused with Kayapo folklore (Video).

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

In 1999, Melli made his first trip to the 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 led to Brazil’s National Institute of Health installing a larger clean water system for the village. The Kayapo own 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 canvasses demonstrating graphically the beauty of the Amazon and the interconnectedness of Kayapo with the forest and its creatures.

In 2000, Melli 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. One of the processes of this project resulted in the National Institutes of Health arranging health care services to the entire Kayapo Reservation, which has around 14,000 people. In 2001, Melli and Araujo started the production of documentary: "Kayapo: Stone Age Survivors." During the production, we made an anthropological discovery that changed the course of the production.

In 2001, we started the pre-production of “Brasil New York” a television series mixing Brazilian world music with environmental messages. The series has never been released and have been archived for a future release as part of a documentary.

In 2002, our 10-year co-production of “Enviro Close-Up” began to broadcast nationwide on the Free Speech Television Network and continues to air today by weekly reaching over 25 million homes.

In 2002 - 2003, we started 3 programs with New York City Board of Education:
*"Healing the Planet One Individual at a Time with Yoga,
*Live Video Production and Media Literacy Program and
*The Video Conferencing via broadband.

This project demonstrated:
*Distance Learning
*Management Meetings and
*Staff training

This project showed how to save the school system millions of dollars by using this technology.

In 2002, Frank Melli co-produced with Barbara Pyle “One Child One Voice.” As an official organization in affiliation with the United Nations, Melli under the auspices of Green Sphere coordinated international satellite distribution, broadcasting the program globally 8 times for the United Nation’s Johannesburg Conference on Sustainable Development. We also coordinated the marketing and distribution of these broadcasts to over 3,000 TV stations in over 150 counties. In 2003, this program was nominated for an Emmy Award and won a total of 39 awards altogether. For a citation of this Emmy see Public Affairs at: [http://www.natassoutheast.tv/NATAS/Emmy2003Winners.html]

In 2003, we started the GreenSphere.org website and began to share with the world some of Green Sphere initiatives on line. Also in 2003, Melli created the Kayapo Children’s Scholarship Fund, which is continuously assisting young Kayapos in their quest for education and their pursuit to help their people.

In 2004, Green Sphere’s board President Al Jones, and Web Master Roy Shimmyo accompanied Executive Director Frank Melli on another trip to visit our indigenous friends in the Amazon Rainforest. This time we recorded tribal rituals for the “Stone Age Survivors” documentary and some songs for a music project. Part of the journey included a trip to an area that no non-indigenous people had ever visited. In 2004, Melli co-produced with Takeshi Utsumi two broadband events on International video conferencing for E-Learning, Tele-Medicine and Peace Gaming. Melli broke new ground by adding the professional TV look that video conferencing had been missing.

Recently, Melli co-founded and together with Green Sphere became partners of The New Orbita Music Group. The company is made up of 4 artist owners and several media professionals all working together for the environment. In June of 2007, one of the first projects coordinated by Melli was a concert in association with the Friends of Live Earth. The outstanding performance by The Zé Luis Quartet at Brama Café in New York City promoted Al Gore’s Global Live Earth Concert. And New Orbita’s first CD includes a quote from Green Sphere’s biology advisor Professor Alice Benzecry about how the tropical rainforests are the lungs of the earth. And a sold-out show in Dec. of 2007 at Joe’s Pub’s Public Theatre emphasized the environmental message as well.

In the words of Barbara Pyle: “If we are going to save the environment, it’s not going to come from any one big decision, but from many individual choices – choices by people like you and I. The media has a responsibility to educate and help people make these choices.”

External links

* [http://www.youtube.com/piucaprim Examples of Frank's work on YouTube]
* [http://www.frank-melli.com Video of 20-year track record]
* [http://www.envirovideo.com EnviroVideo]