Artists

Melvin J. Montalban is a filmmaker and artist, working in large-scale video art installation and as a director for television, commercials, and music videos.

He is drawn to stories exploring the human impact on our shared world and each other, and how the power of storytelling offers us opportunities to heal.

Melvin exhibited his multi-channel film installation ‘Temple’ in collaboration with visual artist Leila Jeffreys at Vivid 2022, followed up by the sculpturally monumental ‘Nest’ in 2024. He made his television directorial debut with AACTA nominated mini-series ‘The Unusual Suspects’ for SBS, and his short film ‘Letters’, a sobering tale of bushfire survival made in support of MP Zali Steggall’s Climate Change Bill, received Gold for Best Charity Film at Shots Award. A graduate of Australian Film TV Radio School, his shorts have screened widely at festivals in Australia and internationally.

In Residence at Bundanon

At Bundanon I’ll continue script development on my feature film ‘Dream Weaver’, a sci-fi drama in which a lonely dream interpreter is drawn into the subconscious dreamscapes of an old flame and his comatose fiancée. The beauty of the South Coast bush and beach has long been an inspiration for the dreamscapes, and this residency allows me the time to connect with the project’s themes of longing, memory and grief, both personal and ecological. I’ll also continue the project’s visual development through landscape and underwater photography, storyboarding and concept art.