Testimonials
“Adele worked closely with me as consulting producer on my documentary “Through the Eye of the Needle: The Art of Esther Nisenthal Krinitz,” helping shepherd the project from a treatment on paper, to a polished script, to a finished film. Her experience with all aspects of production was invaluable. Among her many talents — she is truly brilliant with story structure. Her method of using the structure wall as a constantly changing canvas to move words and images around was the perfect way to find the film’s structure. I could not have found a better creative partner for this film. “
Nina Shapiro-Perl, PhD
Filmmaker-in Residence, American University
Director, “Through the Eye of the Needle: The Art of
Esther Nisenthal Krinitz”
Audience Favorite Documentary Award 2011 Washington Jewish Film Festival, Audience Choice Best Short 2012 San Diego Film Festival, Audience Award Best Short Film 2012 Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival, Official Selection 2012 Toronto Film festival
“Adele Schmidt is a documentarian in the truest sense of the word. She understands the art of making compelling and lasting documentary films about stories that need to be told. She not only shapes excellent, award-winning films at the highest level, but as importantly, as an educator, she has influenced and inspired a new generation of up and coming filmmakers.
MARTIN DOBLMEIER, JOURNEY FILMS
“I approached Adele for a consultation with an almost finished film. She is brilliant with story structure and helped me identify what worked and what didn’t work in my film without changing my vision of the film. She has a great attention for detail and a knack for identifying simple but important changes that have a big impact on the overall structure of the film.”
ELLEN TRIPLER
DIRECTOR – “DYING GREEN”
OUTSTANDING ENVIRONMENTAL PRODUCTION VISIONS 2011, STUDENT OSCAR winner of the 2012 academy silver medal in the documentary category
“Adele brings boundless enthusiasm to projects, and heads straight into each one with the practical assumption that it will be good, creating an environment of open discussion and re-thinking things. You’ll hear her ask, over and over, “what’s the theme?” Adele keeps the focus on what a documentary says, in every moment – not just how it looks. This is the kind of big-picture thinking that can save a project from getting lost in the details.”
PAUL MOON, ZEN VIOLENCE FILMS
“Adele is a mentor and teacher whom I recommend to call at any point when a filmmaker is stuck and wants to move forward – be it at the research/ preproduction stage, production, during the edit or with distribution. Adele has done it all, beautifully, for a career – with all different kinds of budgets. Adele encourages and teaches and will help you become a better filmmaker.”
LOIS LIPMAN, FILMMAKER
INSTRUCTOR FOR VIDEO PRODUCTION AND SOCIAL MEDIA, UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND
“Adele’s classes fill a need for people looking for targeted professional training, who don’t want to enroll in Semester-long courses, or vague overview classes”
Krys Kornmeier, Producer
“Adele was an incredible asset to our film project, helping to guide us through the logistics and business of making a film. Her focus is on getting things done, and she was able to draw on her considerable production experience to help us chart a course to completion. At the same time, Adele remained sensitive to the feeling and flow of the film, and provided great creative input to the storytelling.”