How To Power A City

Melanie La Rosa is an award-winning filmmaker and educator. Her documentaries include the new feature “How To Power A City,” which follows individuals leading clean energy projects in six locations. She also authored a book based on the film, “Communities and the Clean Energy Revolution” (Lexington Books/Rowman & Littlefield, 2022). She is a 2022 Public Voices Fellow with the OpEd Project and the Yale Program on Climate Change Communications, and has won grants from the New York State Council on the Arts, the Periclean/Mellon Faculty Leadership Award, the Brooklyn Arts Council, the Queens Council on the Arts, The Puffin Foundation, the Yip Harburg Foundation, and the Solutions Journalism Network.

Melanie’s previous films include “Sir: Just A Normal Guy” (2001), which screened to acclaim at LGBTQ festivals around the world, and “The Poetry Deal: a film with Diane di Prima” (2011, 2021). “The Poetry Deal” was re-released 10 years after its original premiere, has aired in over 150 markets across the U.S., and will broadcast on public television through 2025.

Melanie teaches media production at Pace University, and holds an MFA in Film and Media from Temple University and a BA in Political Science from the University of Michigan. She splits her time between Queens, NYC and the rural mountains of upstate NY.