Monica Flaherty Frassetto

Monica Flaherty Frassetto (1920–2008) was a filmmaker and archaeologist. and Frances Hubbard Flaherty. On her third birthday, Frassetto's parents brought their daughter to the Pacific island of Samoa where they began working on Moana, their 1926 documentary film.

Frassetto attended school in Heidelberg, Germany, and Devon, England.

In 1940, Frassetto took flying lessons in the United States. From 1942–44, she was stationed in Alamogordo, New Mexico, where she was a ferry pilot and Women Airforce Service Pilot. There she recorded a new soundtrack for the film consisting of field recordings and traditional songs, which she edited and synched to the film once back at MIT, again with Leacock. As the two had not recorded dialogue, Frassetto later returned to Hawaii to record with Samoan people there.

Archaeology In 2018, her rubbings of Taíno petroglyphs like ones found in the town of Jayuya in the mid-1950s were selected by artist Jorge González for inclusion in his installation titled Ayacavo Guarocoel, shown at the Whitney Museum of American Art. For a 1960 study, "A Preliminary Report on Petroglyphs in Puerto Rico," Frassetto made sixty surface prints at 13 sites in Puerto Rico. Frassetto's 1960 study of the Cueva del Indio site was a noted example of documentation.