​​​

Melissa James is an award-winning producer, director and owner of Sigil Films. 

​

In 2025 Melissa was nominated for a Canadian Screen Award for her work as archive producer on CBC's Searching for Satoshi. She recently produced the critically acclaimed feature Satan Wants You (2023), which premiered at SXSW and explores the untold story of the Satanic Panic. The film holds a 95% Certified Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, was featured in the NYT and was described by Variety as "the scariest documentary of the year."

 

In 2023, Melissa also directed Witch Hunt, a short documentary about political witchcraft that premiered at the Salem Horror Fest and won Best Documentary at the Denver Underground Film Festival. Prior to this she directed and produced the critically acclaimed cult music documentary No Fun City (2010) which won Best Documentary at the Victoria Film Festival, premiered at DOXA and was broadcast on Superchannel.

​

Her work as a producer and archive producer can be seen in the CSA-nominated LETTER FROM MASANJIA (2018), Peabody Award-winning HUMAN HARVEST (2014), and the ESPN 30 for 30, I’M JUST HERE FOR THE RIOT (2023).

 

She is currently producing Hearse Chasing (2025), a short documentary for Telus Originals about a musician’s journey with C-PTSD, and is the archive producer on Secrets of the BunnyRanch, a six-part series for A+E about brothels in Nevada.​

​​​​​