Perry Miller Adato (December 22, 1920 – September 16, 2018) was an American documentary film producer and director and writer. Adato was born Lillian Perry Miller in

Yonkers, New York Yonkers () is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States. Developed along the Hudson River, it is the third most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City and Buffalo. The population of Yonkers was 211,569 as enu ...

. At age 18 she moved to

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...

. She married Neil M. Adato on September 11, 1955. They had two children, Lauren and Michelle.

Early life

From a very young age Perry Miller Adato was interested in performing. She would perform for her mother, brother and sister in a small

Yonkers Yonkers () is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States. Developed along the Hudson River, it is the third most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City and Buffalo. The population of Yonkers was 211,569 as enu ...

apartment that her late father left for them. Her widowed mother Ida (Block) Miller managed apartment buildings to provide for her family. During her high school career Perry acted and continued to pursue her acting career during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Career

At the end of World War II Adato worked at the United Nations as a film consultant hoping to use film as a catalyst for social change. After working at the United Nations Miller moved to Paris in the 1950s and began to develop her documentary skills. While in Paris she also created the Film Advisory Center to bring European documentaries to the United States. In 1953 Perry left the advisory center behind to work at CBS as a film researcher.

Awards

Miller won an

Emmy The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

in 1968 for her first film, ''Dylan Thomas: The World I Breathe'' and won two

nominations for ''Gertrude Stein: When This You See'', ''Remember Me'' in 1970. In 1980 she won an

nomination for ''Picasso-A Painter's Diary''. She was also the first woman to win the coveted

Directors Guild of America Award The Directors Guild of America Awards are issued annually by the Directors Guild of America. The first DGA Award was an "Honorary Life Member" award issued in 1938 to D. W. Griffith. The statues are made by New York firm, Society Awards. Catego ...

for ''Georgia O'Keeffe'', and garnered four DGA awards over the course of her career.

Activism

In 1943 Perry and her friends founded a social activist group calle
Stage For Action
The inspiration for this group stemmed from the anxieties many faced during World War II. Including the recent attack on Pearl Harbor. The group's main focus was creating art that was politically motivated, and to make citizens at home aware of how they could help the soldiers on the war front. While Miller did not call herself a feminist film maker she did take into account that her being a woman had some influence on the movies that she created. Miller often made documentaries where women were the main focus. Including Mary Cassatt, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Betye Saar as part of a series focusing on Women In Art on WNET. Miller also expressed in the 1970s that she wished she had not been so "Behind the Scenes". Miller also believed that the movement for women's rights was responsible for opening the doors to women in film.

Filmography

* ''Paris The Luminous Years – Toward the Making of the Modern'' (2010) * ''Georgia O'Keeffe – A Life in Art'' (2003) * ''

Alfred Stieglitz Alfred Stieglitz (January 1, 1864 – July 13, 1946) was an American photographer and modern art promoter who was instrumental over his 50-year career in making photography an accepted art form. In addition to his photography, Stieglitz was kno ...

: 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 Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of realism, earlier ...

: A Glory of Ghosts'' (1986) *''

Carl Sandburg Carl August Sandburg (January 6, 1878 – July 22, 1967) was an American poet, biographer, journalist, and editor. He won three Pulitzer Prizes: two for his poetry and one for his biography of Abraham Lincoln. During his lifetime, Sandburg ...

: Echoes and Silences'' (1982) *''

Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

– A Painter's Diary'' (1980) *''

Frankenthaler Helen Frankenthaler (December 12, 1928 – December 27, 2011) was an American abstract expressionist painter. She was a major contributor to the history of postwar American painting. Having exhibited her work for over six decades (early 1950s u ...

– Toward A New Climate'' (1978) *'' When the World was Wide'' (1978) *''

Georgia O'Keeffe Georgia Totto O'Keeffe (November 15, 1887 – March 6, 1986) was an American modernist artist. She was known for her paintings of enlarged flowers, New York skyscrapers, and New Mexico landscapes. O'Keeffe has been called the "Mother of Amer ...

'' (1977) *''

Mary Cassatt Mary Stevenson Cassatt (; May 22, 1844June 14, 1926) was an American painter and printmaker. She was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania (now part of Pittsburgh's North Side), but lived much of her adult life in France, where she befriended Edgar De ...

– Impressionist From Philadelphia'' (1975) *''The Originals – Women in Art'' (series 1975–78) *''An Eames Celebration – Several Worlds Of

Charles Eames Charles Ormond Eames Jr. (June 17, 1907 – August 21, 1978) was an American designer, architect and filmmaker. In professional partnership with his spouse Ray Kaiser Eames, he was responsible for groundbreaking contributions in the field of a ...

and

Ray Eames Ray-Bernice Alexandra Kaiser Eames (née Kaiser; December 15, 1912 – August 21, 1988) was an American artist and designer who worked in a variety of media. In creative partnership with her husband Charles Eames and The Eames Office, she was ...

'' (1973) *''The Great Radio Comedians'' (1972) *''

Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946) was an American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the Allegheny West neighborhood and raised in Oakland, California, Stein moved to Paris ...

: When This You See, Remember Me'' (1970) *''The Film Generation And Dance'' (1969) *''The Film Generation'' (series 1968–69) *''

Dylan Thomas Dylan Marlais Thomas (27 October 1914 – 9 November 1953) was a Welsh poet and writer whose works include the poems "Do not go gentle into that good night" and "And death shall have no dominion", as well as the "play for voices" ''Under ...

– The World I Breathe'' (1968)

References

External links

*
Perry Miller Adato Papers
at the

Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research The Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research (WCFTR) is a major archive of motion picture, television, radio, and theater research materials. Located in the headquarters building of the Wisconsin Historical Society in Madison, Wisconsin, the ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Adato, Perry Miller 1920 births 2018 deaths American documentary filmmakers Film producers from New York (state) People from Yonkers, New York American women television directors American television directors Directors Guild of America Award winners Emmy Award winners Film directors from New York (state) American women documentary filmmakers 21st-century American women