Melvonna Ballenger
Melvonna "Mel" Marie Ballenger (August 6, 1954 – June 25, 2003) was an American director, producer, and writer who created activist short films, known for her involvement in the L.A. Rebellion film movement. She died at the age of 48 from breast cancer.
Melvonna Ballenger
- Born
- 1954 · St. Louis.
- Died
- 2003
- Nationality
- United States
- Occupation
- film director
- Movements
- L.A. Rebellion
- Education
- University of California and Los Angeles · Howard University · Stephens College
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In this article
Education
Education
Ballenger was born in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1972, she was selected to attend a high school workshop for Minority Broadcast Journalists hosted by University of Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia, Missouri. She attended Stephens College for women, also in Columbia, before transferring to Howard University. There, she studied broadcast journalism, worked at WHUR-FM, and earned a bachelor's degree in communications. She moved to Los Angeles after graduating Howard and joined UCLA's M.F.A. program in film and television production.
Career
Career
Ballenger's first film was Rain (Nyesha), which she directed in 1978 during her time at UCLA. The film, which includes John Coltrane's song "After the Rain," depicts a typist who becomes increasingly politically empowered. It received an honorable mention at Los Angeles's Black Talkies on Parade festival in 1982. Ballenger's film Nappy-Headed Lady, later renamed "Pigtail Blues", was mentioned by the Star-Gazette newspaper as a "story of a black woman who changes her her hair style as she begins to appreciate her racial heritage". The film uses a mix of original video and documentary footage from the 1960s to explore the impact of Eurocentric beauty standards on Black women.
Recognition
Recognition
John William mentioned Ballenger in his article, "Daughters of the Diaspora: A Filmography of Sixty-Five Black Women Independent Film- and Video-Makers". Ballenger's student work at UCLA as part of the L.A. Rebellion helped her gain acknowledgment as an up-and-coming African American filmmaker.
Films
• Rain (Nyesha) (1978, director) • Gidget Meets Hondo (1980, script) • Nappy-Headed Lady (1983, director) • Dreadlocks and the Three Bears (1991, cinematographer) • Fragrance (1991, sound mixer)
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Licensing
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Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Melvonna Ballenger, revision 1245033234 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Ballenger, Melvonna. Melvonna Ballenger. UCLA film and television archive.
- 2.Zeinabu Davis on using film to tell stories about the black experience. san domingo union-tribune. 31 December 2016.
- 3.Rain (Nyesha) | UCLA Film & Television Archive.
- 4.Newspapers.com. 3 Feb 1984, 23 - Star-Gazette at. 1984-02-03.
- 5.Melvonna Ballenger | UCLA Film & Television Archive.
- 6.Williams, John. DAUGHTERS OF THE DIASPORA: A Filmography of Sixty-Five Black Women Independent Film- and Video-Makers. Cinéaste. 20. 3. 41–42. 1994. 41687325.
- 7.Ballenger. LA Rebellion. UCLA cinema and television archive.
- 8.Ballenger. 2 Rebellious Unlearning: UCLA Project One Films (1967–1978). University of California Press. 83–118. 2015. 9780520284678.
Bibliography printed in the source article · 2
- Reid, Mark A. (ed.) African American Cinema: Through Black Lives Consciousness.
- Field, Allyson Nadia et al. (eds.) L.A. Rebellion: Creating a New Black Cinema.
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Citations
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Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 26 August 2026.
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