Perry Miller Adato

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. At age 18 she moved to 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 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. In 1980 she won an Emmy nomination for Picasso-A Painter's Diary. She was also the first woman to win the coveted Directors Guild of America Award for Georgia O'Keeffe, and garnered four DGA awards over the course of her career.

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".

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)