Monteiro, at the time with no references besides having frequented the London School of Film Technique (1963–65), was recommended to Ricardo Malheiro (1909–77), the owner of Cultura Filmes and himself a director of documentary shorts, by Alberto Seixas Santos and António Pedro Vasconcelos.
[2] The choice of the Gulbenkian Foundation to confine the series to living personalities made him turn to Sophia.
An important source of inspiration to Sophia herself, the luminous region where Monteiro would shoot Hovering Over the Water (1986) is one of the essential matters of the film.
Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen ends with the poet writing her name in a sheet that fades to white under the sound of the waves.
Of his own films, Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen was probably the one more openly discussed by Monteiro.