BIO
Helki Frantzen is a documentary cinematographer based in Los Angeles. She is drawn to places of genuine community and loves exploring the ways that people get together.
Her work has screened at festivals worldwide including Tribeca, Sheffield, IDFA, Camden, DOC NYC, and AFI Fest and has appeared on TV and online outlets such as HULU, PBS, BBC, the L.A Times, the Atlantic, Vice News and Rollingstone Magazine. She recently DP’d hit documentary series, Perfect Wife: The Mysterious Disapperance of Sherri Papini (HULU, 2024), directed by Michael Beach Nichols and excecutive produced by Erin Lee Carr.
Her work on RICHLAND (Tribeca '23), a feature length documentary directed by Irene Lusztig, was filmed with “gorgeous and eerie precision" according to ‘Richland’ Review: A Sobering View of a Town Taken Advantage Of (The Wrap).
Documentaries Helki has DP’d have received multiple awards, including a Los Angeles Area Emmy, numerous Los Angeles Press Club awards and a Golden Mike award. Helki is a member of the International Collective of Female Cinematographers and the Documentary Cinematographer's Alliance.
PERSONAL STATEMENT
Born in the Netherlands, and having moved all over, that is to say, from Amsterdam to Milwaukee to Indonesia, from New York to Tasmania, I am a veteran of adapting to new environments and spending time with people from all walks of life. My relationships with the people I am filming and with my film crew are paramount - I believe photographic images are a record of these relationships. Coming from a photography and visual arts background (BFA and MFA, Bard College), I am also very drawn to the compositional aspects of cinematography; for me the act of filming is both a pleasurable and meditative experience, a way to be in the present, to get to know people and discover beauty all around me.
Can work locally in Los Angeles and the Netherlands.
Contact: helkifrantzen@gmail.com
