Elettra Fiumi is an award-winning film director, producer, and editor making independent documentary films. Elettra’s documentaries explore themes of discovery, innovation, and a sense of place. She’s told stories of people, brands, and places across nations and industries, including in technology, adventure travel, fashion, art, architecture, and education. Elettra’s past films have been featured in the BBC, Teen Vogue, The New Yorker, NBC News Digital, MSNBC, Univision and others. Elettra launched and leads Fiumi Studios, a full-service production and online content strategy company, and worked on content for Netflix, Airbnb, WhatsApp, and Amazon Prime, among many others. Elettra also teaches filmmaking at Franklin University in Switzerland.
Fiumi, a freelance documentary filmmaker who has strong family and professional ties in Italy and the U.S. Relocated to Switzerland right before the outbreak of COVID, Elettra had to innovate her filming approach when in-person interviews and filming were impossible during lockdowns. She compiled crowdsourcing from residents and curated the eyewitness footage and storytelling from a few photojournalists remotely to document the frontline impact of COVID-19 in Italy, which won the attention of a global audience and 17 international awards. In this interview, she revealed the behind-the-scene coordination of those productions, challenges for filmmakers, and gender stereotypes in the filming industry. She left some encouraging remarks to future generations.