Documentary Filmmaker to Speak About O'Keeffe Film

Photo Submitted

Perry Miller Adato in the 1970s.

PBS filmmaker Perry Miller Adato will give an informal talk to documentary film students at the University of Arkansas about the changing role for women in the film industry and overcoming setbacks of funding and research in documentary production.

The talk will be at 5:15 p.m. Monday, Jan. 13, in J.B. Hunt 266. All students, faculty and staff are welcome to attend.

Adato's visit to campus is part of a trip hosted by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, where Adato will talk at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 10, and screen her award-winning film, Georgia O'Keeffe, in conjunction with the Artists' Eye exhibition. Originally aired in 1977 as a special National Gallery of Art and PBS tribute to O'Keeffe's 90th birthday, Georgia O'Keeffe is the only film portrait of herself that O'Keeffe allowed to be made.

To order tickets for the Crystal Bridges event, visit crystalbridges.org.

"Adato is an extraordinary filmmaker whose métier is art and the creative process," wrote Rebecca Paller, associate curator of the Paley Center for Media. Her film biographies of artists and authors such as Gertrude Stein, Georgia O'Keeffe, Pablo Picasso, Carl Sandburg and Eugene O'Neill give viewers new insights and enhance their appreciation of each artist's life and work.

Adato won an Emmy Award in 1968 for her initial directorial effort, Dylan Thomas – The World I Breathe, and four Directors Guild of America Awards. She pioneered the innovative use of still photos in film biography, paving the way for Ken Burns and many other documentary filmmakers who followed.

Each film "has to arise from the style and personality of the artists," Adato once said. "I'm not interested in education, per se, but there needn't be a conflict between something that is entertaining and educational. You can take any subject in the world and make it fascinating, if it's done poetically, artistically and with relevance to people's lives today."