Denise Zmekhol
Director/Producer
Working on social issue documentaries as well as in commercial arenas, Zmekhol combines a public affairs sensibility with a commercial director’s visual acumen.
A Sao Paulo native, Zmekhol studied Social Communication and Journalism in Brazil and completed her studies in Photography, Film and Broadcasting at San Francisco State University. She speaks Portuguese, Spanish, French and English.
Zmekhol worked as a news cameraperson in San Francisco. When she returned to Brazil in 1987, Zmekhol assisted on documentaries filmed in the Amazon. In addition to her film work, she photographed extensively, producing the photo exhibition Children of the Amazon, and shooting the last photographs of the renowned rubber tapper and environmental activist Chico Mendes before his assassination. Her photos of Mendes appeared in Time Magazine and other publications worldwide.
During the 90s, Zmekhol worked as a freelance producer and director for various Sao Paulo production companies, creating marketing and public relations. In 1998, Zmekhol returned to the United States to work on Digital Journey, an award winning public television series that explores emerging technologies in their social, environmental and cultural contexts.
Zmekhol has recently completed Children of the Amazon, an ITVS co-production about the destruction of the Amazon rainforest and its hope for the future. She is currently producing a video with Google Earth Outreach to train Indigenous Amazonian tribes to use Google Earth for recording cultural traditions and monitoring the forest against illegal logging.
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