Ask Adele
ASK ADELE is a short documentary film portrait of my mom, Adele Daniller. The film looks at my mother’s passion for cinema and her work as a background actor in Hollywood. It also explores our relationship, our family history, and the echoes of trauma.
Born in Poland in 1938, Adele fled to Vienna with her parents using false identities, and hid in plain sight. Her family used to meet secretly in cinema houses during the war, to talk under the cover of darkness and plot their next moves. She grew up seeing many American films, and dreamt of going to Hollywood and getting involved in the film business.
My work explores how memory and narrative shape the family stories which shape us, both examined and unexamined. How can we understand our parents beyond the usual parent/child dynamic? What does one want to understand about a parent before they leave this world? What family stories do we choose to remember, and how do we remember them?
A selection of film stills from the project Ask Adele
