History

Elements in Time was created in 1992 when, at the urge of a friend, Melinda created a Fine Arts Camp for disadvantaged children at two summer camps in Seattle.  Knowing that her small company would change considerably over the years, she looked for a name that would encompass a wide variety of activities.  She settled on a name that would reflect her philosophies:  Elements In Time.  Here’s what she wrote at the time, which, while a bit esoteric, still lies within the philosophies of Elements In Time today:

1. Carl Sagan said, “We are made of stardust.”   We as human beings are made largely of carbon, a basic element  of life found on our periodic table. The elements in our periodic table come from helium fusion occurring in stars, and stars were originally created from hydrogen fusion just after the Big Bang.  So we living beings are intricate compositions of elements that can be traced back to the first few seconds in beginning of our universe.
   

2. Our significance is that we are unique combinations of these elements, elements that have come together in one particular time and place.  In essence, every thing and being that surrounds us has the same origin, yet each is an intricate coalescence of elements positioned within this unique time.
   

3. Additionally, each film, book, magazine or journal article, advertisement, artwork, costume, letter, and piece of junk in a junkyard, is a relic of our time--a contribution to our understanding of our world.  History is not inherently known, but created by the things we know, understand, and conjecture in the present time. 
   

4. As creators and manipulators of society and culture, we have a responsibility to create wisely, for what we know and understand of our present and past contributes to how we uncover our future.  The elements of culture, the creation of relics that contribute to what we see as truth, in our time, have the potential to affect the future in ways we can never know.
   

In 2007, fifteen years later, we’d like to add an additional meaning of the title - for film and video are considered time-based media.

Melinda Briana Epler

Documentary Filmmaker & Executive Director, Elements In Time

From 2005 to 2007, Melinda worked as Production Manager and Consulting Editor for Women Who Dare, a feature documentary (currently in post-production) about three Turkish women who incorporate tradition into their struggles for autonomy in a world that straddles European and Middle Eastern ideals.  In 2005 and 2006, she assisted and apprenticed with director Matia Karrell on NBC’s The West Wing. Later in 2006 she directed Ready or Not, a short documentary about three families preparing for the possible devastating effects of pandemic flu, oil peak and decline, and climate change.

For nine months in 2006 and 2007, Melinda edited Participant Productions’ feature documentary Angels in the Dust, which won the Audience Award at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, Special Jury Prize for Documentary at the Seattle International Film Festival, and will be released theatrically in late September, 2007. She is currently developing several documentary projects with Elements In Time, a non-profit organization dedicated to creating media that provokes sustainable social and environmental change.

Melinda holds a BA in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Washington, a BFA in Fine Art from the School of Visual Arts, and attended the MFA program in Fine Art Film and Video at Art Center College of Design for two years before earning an MFA in Cinema and Television from the University of Southern California.

Mission

Elements in Time is dedicated to creating sustainable social and environmental change with documentary media.

This includes:

1.  Educating the world community about self-sustainability models which take into account increased global changes in climate and energy availability.

2.  Promoting resilience and sustainable adaptation in areas of the world most at risk now and in the future.

3.  Provoking sustainable local and worldwide solutions to social and environmental issues, focussing on the quality of life and future for humans and all other species.

Elements in Time is a non-profit public benefit corporation formed exclusively for literary and educational purposes within the meaning of section 501(c)(3) of the IRS Code.

Projects

For a list of Elements in Time projects, please visit our Projects Page.