Producer, writer and director of Ingelore, Frank Stiefel has spent the majority of his career as a production executive in the television commercial production industry. First as the Executive Producer at Stiefel & Company and later at @Radical Media, he was responsible for the production of thousands of commercials:
“Executive producer is primarily a business function, but it’s one of those jobs that allows for a great deal of interpretation. My interpretation has always leaned toward the creative execution of the Project….”
Stiefel has produced a number of short subject documentaries that appeared in the Telluride, Sundance and Berlin festivals. Over his time, Stiefel has worked with a range of directors, and finally turned his hand to directing by creating the documentary piece INGLELORE which is based on his own mother.
He first realized the story as a film when he watched his mother lecture to deaf students at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf in Rochester, New York.
“Ingelore is the first project that I have directed. Its original purpose was to leave the film to my children so that a record survived of their grandmother.”
The documentary depicts the life of his mother over the years and explores her history as a Deaf woman in Nazi Germany, discussing what happened through the past. Not only is this his first directed piece but also a turning point in Stiefel’s and Ingelores relationship as they face her past together.
Ingelore has been shortlisted for the Best Documentary at this year’s Film & TV Gala Awards.
The UK's leading Deaf Film & Arts Festival 