Longtime NYWIFT member Flavia Fontes, a friend so many of us got to know at NYWIFT events, passed away from cancer on April 18, 2021.
A Brazilian-American documentary director, editor, and producer, she had been making documentaries for over 20 years. Her work as an editor and director had been broadcast on HBO, PBS, BBC, Discovery Channel, Berlin Film Festival, MoMA and the Sundance Film Festival. Our hearts to go out to her family and to all whose lives she touched.
Born on February 8, 1961 in Belo Horizonte, Fontes moved to New York City to attend Hunter College and New York University. In 1995 she directed, produced and edited her first documentary Living with Chimpanzees: Portrait of a Family, a film about a couple who adopts two chimpanzees and how they function as a family, which was the winner of the Communicator Award for Excellence in Documentary. The film was screened at the Museum of Modern Art, and was broadcasted on Nippon Television in Japan, on the Discovery channel in Canada, and in over twenty countries throughout the world. Read more about Flavia.
