The Perry Miller Adato Collection is designed to provide access to this filmmaker’s work, making it available for research purposes to scholars, filmmakers and students in a wide variety of disciplines for generations to come. Sixteen documentaries directed & produced by Perry Miller Adato, four of which she wrote, form the centerpiece of the Collection. The films have been digitally preserved and catalogued for adoption by major institutions of research and preservation.
The Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. has honored the Collection by its acceptance of the films and related materials for archival preservation and accessibility. At its dual locations in New York City and Los Angeles, The Paley Center for Media has welcomed the Collection and its accompanying materials; other intended recipients are noted public libraries, museums and universities.
The collection’s sixteen digitally preserved documentaries:
The Perry Miller Adato Collection documents the work of pioneer filmmaker Perry Miller Adato in relation to varied aspects of her life and her career spanning five decades.
Paris The Luminous Years – Toward The Making of the Modern (2010) (RT 2:00)
Georgia O’Keeffe – A Life In Art (2003) (RT:14)
Alfred Stieglitz: The Eloquent Eye (2001) (RT 90:00)
Great Tales in Asian Art (1996) (RT 90:00)
A White Garment of Churches (1989) (RT 60:00) (Art of the Western World series)
Eugene O’Neill: A Glory of Ghosts (1986) (Part 1(RT 60:00), Part 2 (RT 90:00))
Carl Sandburg: Echoes and Silences (1982) (RT 2:00)
Picasso – A Painter’s Diary (1980) (RT 90:00)
Frankenthaler – Toward A New Climate (1978) (RT:30) (The Originals – Women in Art series)
Mary Cassatt – Impressionist From Philadelphia (1978) (RT:30) (The Originals – Women in Art series)
Georgia O’Keeffe (1977) (RT 60:00)
An Eames Celebration – Several Worlds Of Charles Eames and Ray Eames (1973) (RT 90:00)
The Great Radio Comedians (1972) (RT 90:00)
Gertrude Stein: When This You See, Remember Me (1970) (RT 90:00)
The Film Generation: On Dance (1969)(The Film Generation series) (RT 60:00)
Dylan Thomas – The World I Breathe (1968) (RT 60:00)
The Perry Miller Adato Collection also comprises a (RT 2:30) biographical film essay entitled Perry Miller Adato: A Life In Film and a profile written by filmmaker Elena Mannes.
Although there have been many articles about her work, these are the first in-depth treatments about Adato with extensive on-camera interviews with the filmmaker herself and interviews with longtime colleagues. They give insight into the value of the work and place Adato’s oeuvre in the larger context of the history of public television. Several hundred archival photographs enliven the film. The Collection website provides a comprehensive guide to the full collection, the entire film essay, the profile, plus additional program materials. For the first time, a detailed description of each of the sixteen films produced and directed by Perry Miller Adato was prepared by the filmmaker expressly for the collection, plus information about each of the three television film series which she executive produced: The Film Generation (1969), The Originals – Women In Art (1978) and Art of the Western World (1989).
Perry Miller Adato’s films are deeply researched documentary film studies of some of the major artists of our time. She is known for the breadth and the depth of her research, one of the reasons that noted scholars, critics and authors have agreed to participate in her productions.
Filmmakers, film scholars and film students can benefit from a study of the variety of her film styles. As demonstrated in individual films, the style and form of the film are determined by the style and the form of the subject.
The wide range of subject matter and the many disciplines treated in depth in Adato’s films make her films a unique educational resource for scholars, students and researchers. The quality of the interviewees and of the interviews in Adato’s documentaries have afforded wide audiences the opportunity to see the faces and to hear ideas and insights into the life and work of artists of all genres by brilliant and distinguished minds in world culture.