ELEANOR COPPOLA

Filmmaker

Eleanor Coppola is an accomplished documentary filmmaker, artist, and costume designer. In 1962, she was invited to work on a low-budget independent film, Dementia 13. As assistant art director, she worked with Francis Coppola, who was directing his first feature film. The following year, Francis and Eleanor were married.

While in the Philippines for the making of Apocalypse Now, Eleanor shot the documentary footage for the critically acclaimed, Emmy Award-winning film, Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse. She published a journal of that experience in 1979 titled Notes. During the 1996 filming of John Grisham's The Rainmaker, Eleanor shot a documentary that focused on Coppola's techniques for working with actors The Making of 'The Rainmaker,’ which aired on HBO. She has made documentaries of her daughter's and son's films - The Making of the Virgin Suicides, and On the Set of CQ. In the fall of 2006, her documentary The Making of Marie Antoinette, aired on Starz channel.

She has designed costumes and stage décor for the ODC Dance Company of San Francisco and her drawings, photos, and conceptual art pieces have been exhibited in many galleries and museums. Her most recent work was "Circle of Memory," a large-scale installation at the Oakland Art Gallery built to commemorate children who are missing or who have died. It traveled to the Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego and to Santa Fe, New Mexico and will be seen in Montpeillier, France July-September 2007.

She is active in the management of Niebaum-Coppola Estate Winery, the store, and EC Selects, an all-natural gourmet food line. She is an honorary board member of Copia.