Perry Miller Adato facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Perry Miller Adato
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Adato at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival
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Lillian Perry Miller
December 22, 1920 Yonkers, New York, U.S.
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| Died | September 16, 2018 (aged 97) Westport, Connecticut, U.S.
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| Occupation | documentary filmmaker |
Perry Miller Adato (born Lillian Perry Miller; December 22, 1920 – September 16, 2018) was an American filmmaker. She was known for producing and directing many important documentary films. Perry was born in Yonkers, New York. When she was 18, she moved to Greenwich Village in New York City. She married Neil M. Adato in 1955 and they had two daughters, Lauren and Michelle.
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Perry Adato's Early Life
From a young age, Perry Miller Adato loved to perform. She would put on shows for her family in their small apartment in Yonkers. Her mother, Ida Miller, managed apartment buildings to support the family after Perry's father passed away. While in high school, Perry acted and kept pursuing her acting dreams during World War II.
Perry Adato's Filmmaking Career
After World War II ended, Perry Adato worked at the United Nations. She was a film consultant, hoping to use movies to create positive social change. In the 1950s, Miller moved to Paris, France. There, she started to develop her skills in making documentaries. While in Paris, she also created the Film Advisory Center. This center helped bring European documentaries to the United States. In 1953, Perry left the center to work at CBS as a film researcher.
Awards and Achievements
Perry Miller Adato won an Emmy Award in 1968 for her first film, Dylan Thomas: The World I Breathe. She also received two Emmy nominations in 1970 for Gertrude Stein: When This You See, Remember Me. In 1980, she earned another Emmy nomination for Picasso-A Painter's Diary.
She was also the first woman to win the respected Directors Guild of America Award. She won this award for her film Georgia O'Keeffe. Throughout her career, Perry Adato won four Directors Guild of America (DGA) awards.
Activism and Women in Film
In 1943, Perry and her friends started a social activist group called Stage For Action. They were inspired by the worries people felt during World War II, especially after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The group focused on creating art with political messages. They wanted to make people at home aware of how they could help soldiers fighting in the war.
Even though Miller did not call herself a "feminist filmmaker," she knew that being a woman influenced her movies. Miller often made documentaries that focused on women. For example, she featured artists like Mary Cassatt, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Betye Saar in a series called Women In Art for WNET. In the 1970s, Miller said she wished she had not been so "behind the scenes." She also believed that the women's rights movement helped open doors for women in the film industry.
Perry Adato's Filmography
- Paris The Luminous Years – Toward the Making of the Modern (2010)
- Georgia O'Keeffe – A Life in Art (2003)
- Alfred Stieglitz: The Eloquent Eye (2001)
- Great Tales in Asian Art (1996)
- Art of the Western World (series 1989–90)
- A White Garment of Churches (1989)
- Eugene O'Neill: A Glory of Ghosts (1986)
- Carl Sandburg: Echoes and Silences (1982)
- Picasso – A Painter's Diary (1980)
- Frankenthaler – Toward A New Climate (1978)
- When the World was Wide (1978)
- Georgia O'Keeffe (1977)
- Mary Cassatt – Impressionist From Philadelphia (1975)
- The Originals – Women in Art (series 1975–78)
- An Eames Celebration – Several Worlds Of Charles Eames and Ray Eames (1973)
- The Great Radio Comedians (1972)
- Gertrude Stein: When This You See, Remember Me (1970)
- The Film Generation And Dance (1969)
- The Film Generation (series 1968–69)
- Dylan Thomas – The World I Breathe (1968)
