Melinda Janko is the President of Fire in the Belly Productions, Inc., a company whose mission is to “make films that make a difference,” She is an award-winning documentary filmmaker who made her Directorial Debut in 2016, with the release of 100 Years: One Woman’s Fight for Justice, about the legendary Blackfeet activist, Elouise Cobell.

Melinda spent two years, building relationships of trust with Native Americans and obtaining unprecedented access to Senators, Congressmen, the Federal Judge, the Department of the Interior, and many more to tell this story. 100 Years: One Woman’s Fight forJustice had its broadcast premiere in 2020 on PBS America ReFramed and Netflix US Premiere in 2018-2020. The film also won the 2017 Big Sky Documentary Award, a Gold Telly Award for Biography, and the 2019 National Native Media Awards for Best TV Coverage of a Native American Story.

100 Years is now taught at Stanford, UC Berkeley, Yale, Harvard, Dartmouth, Duke and Cornell Law Schools and in public schools in over 25 states. www.100yearsthemovie.com

Melinda began filming Women are Sacred: Missing and Murdered in February of 2020. Filming resumed after Covid in 2022 in Alaska, and continued all across the United States. Women are Sacred is currently in post-production.

The Women are Sacred campaign is a three pronged campaign that consists of
1. A feature length documentary
2. A social impact campaign to educate the public
3. A lobbying campaign to reverse the devastating 1978 Supreme Court Oliphant Ruling

The www.womenaresacredcampaign.com is supported by the Tulalip Tribe, Santa Ynez Band of Mission Indians, Pivotal Ventures, a Melinda French Gates organization, the NoVo Foundation, Common Pictures, and More Productions.
www.womenaresacredcampaign.com