By Jennifer Warren
For seven years Forest Hills film writer and actress Adele D’Man has been stealing away to Kew Gardens for inspiration. The hideaway hamlet with winding streets and Tudor facades cradles her favorite movie house where she and her producer husband Peter Goldberg spend hours watching foreign, independent and otherwise fringe films.
But when it comes to her own works, D’Man opts for something a bit more accessible. With the debut of her short film “Only Life” on April 5 at the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival, D’Man hopes to draw a mainstream audience despite the festival’s name.
“Our goal is not to hit the independent audience,” the auburn-haired actress said over a morning cup of chamomile tea at the T-Bone Diner in Forest Hills. “We want to reach the mainstream but with a film that’s not completely mainstream,” she said of her short and “The American Dream,” a feature-length film on which she is currently working.
The 11-minute silent film “Only Life” featuring the soulful stringed melodies of Brandon Wilde, tells of a young woman’s addiction to fashion magazines and her struggle to regain control. It will precede the screenings of two feature-length entries, “The American Cowboy,” narrated by William Hurt, and NFL football player Fred Dryer’s film, “Highway 395.”
D’Man, who declined to give her age, grew up in Brooklyn near Sheepshead Bay, the daughter of playwrights Sandra and Leonard Friedman. D’Man adopted her stage name 13 years ago at a photographer’s suggestion.
She later studied film and drama at Emerson College in Boston. But while still a youngster, she was steeped in the household pastime of film analysis and discussion, she said, noting that her elder sister also took to the stage as a stand-up comedian.
D’Man’s preferred works were the 1940s films of Bacall, Hepburn, Tracy and Grant, especially “Bringing Up Baby.” The actresses in those early works gave her young aspirations a foothold.
“Women had strong parts at that time. That always made me feel there was a place for me in this field. They pretty much owned the stage and the screen,” she said.
But D’Man does not intend to dominate her own films, and hopes her audience will play a significant role in the works’ interpretation. It was for this reason she deliberately eliminated dialogue in “Only Life,” so the audience could interpret the heroine’s actions however they wish. “Every time I wrote [the dialogue], it turned out so obvious, so inconsequential,” she said.
Which is not what she has in store for the future of her work.
“It will change the way people feel about themselves and life,” she said. “Activating their imagination — that’s what drives me.”
For tickets to “Only Life,” call 212.777.7100 or access the website, www.bfgfproductions.com.
