Helen Alexis Yonov
Helen Alexis Yonov is a Latvian-American filmmaker based in Los Angeles. After graduating from Emerson College in Boston, Alexis moved to Los Angeles in 2002 where she began working as a Set Production Assistant. She worked on over 20 big budget movies, including Anchorman, War of the Worlds, Seabiscuit, and Elizabethtown. It was in 2008 that Alexis wrote and directed the award-winning short film, The Weight of it. A few years later, she moved to Paris and found the inspiration to write her award-winning short film, The Gesture and The Word winning multiple awards at the FFTG Awards 2020.
Alexis is the fourth generation of her family to live and work in Hollywood. Born in Newport, Rhode Island, Alexis moved often due to her father’s US Naval and diplomatic career. She grew up in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (1984-1986) and Moscow, Russia (1990-1992,) where she experienced the 1991 coup d’état and the fall of the USSR. Her experiences living and traveling overseas created an appreciation for different cultures and traditions, which influenced her decision to live in Paris, France from 2011-2018. She was in Paris during the 2015 Terror Attacks. Having directed the award-winning short We Stand Together (a #metoo PSA) , Alexis is expanding the project into a conversational-style interview series that raises the question: “What comes next for the #metoo movement?”
About her accepting the invitation, “I am excited to be a part of the FFTG Awards We, The Chosen One’s program. As a fan of short filmmaking, I am excited to be introduced to short films from around the World and the filmmakers who create them. I believe that short films are a respected art form. Through FFTG, I wish to support my fellow filmmakers, as well as help these films reach a global audience.”