Private Project

Safer in Silence

At sixteen, Corinne receives a phone call from a mysterious woman in a heavy foreign accent, claiming to be her grandmother. The woman tells Corinne she has found her through a private detective, has just arrived from Brazil, and can they meet. Thus begins a lifetime quest to understand her family’s hidden past. Uncovering Jewish roots, Corinne is pulled on a complex journey that spans 30 years and five continents. One startling revelation leads to another.
Safer in Silence is a story about hiding and family secrets; about identity and inter-generational trauma. Ultimately, it’s a story about one woman’s search for wholeness.

  • Corinne Niox Chateau
    Director
  • Corinne Niox Chateau
    Writer
    The Road to Cali (book) The Sunshines East (play)
  • Corinne Niox Chateau
    Producer
  • Corinne Niox Chateau
    Key Cast
    "self"
    Broadway, Off-Broadway, with Arthur Penn, Elia Kazan, Katherine Hepburn, Anne Bancroft, Shelly Winters, Ellen Burstyn
  • Milenia Fieldler
    Editor
    Polish Academy Award, three Polish Academy Award nominations
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Feature
  • Genres:
    Documentary, Personal documentary, Personal search
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 31 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    January 28, 2020
  • Production Budget:
    80,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    Brazil, France, Poland, Portugal, United States
  • Language:
    English, French
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital, 35mm,Super 8 archives,
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • WARSAW JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL
    WARSAW
    Poland
    December 20, 2020
    Poland
    Official Selection
  • East Europe International Film Festival
    Warsaw
    Poland
    December 20, 2020
    Best Story
  • WRPN Women's International Film Festival

    Award of Excellence
  • Prague International Monthly Film Festival
    Prague
    Czech Republic
    Best Documentary Honorable Mention
  • International Women's Film Festival

    Finalist
  • IndieFest Film Awards

    Official Selection
  • IMPACT DOCS AWARDS

    AWARD OF MERIT
  • MANHATTAN FILM FESTIVAL
    NEW YORK
    United States
    OFFICAL SELECTION
  • DOCS WITHOUT BORDERS FILM FESTIVAL

    OFFICIAL SELECTION
  • CHAIN NYC FILM FESTIVAL
    NEW YORK
    United States
    OFFICAL SELECTION
  • EXPERIMENTAL FORUM

    HONORABLE MENTION
  • 2020 MOSAIC FESTIVAL OF ARTS AND CULTURE

    OFFICIAL SELECTION
  • North Europe International Film Festival
Director Biography - Corinne Niox Chateau

Corinne was born in New York City, a first generation child of French and Polish ancestry. She attended Barnard College, the graduate film program at NYU, and The American Film Institute. As an actress Corinne studied with acting gurus Stella Adler and Lee Strasberg. She appeared in feature films, television, on and off- Broadway and in regional theater. She has worked with renowned directors such as Elia Kazan and Arthur Penn, and has appeared with Anne Bancroft, Shelly Winters, Katherine Hepburn, Ellen Burstyn, among others. As a directing fellow at the American Film Institute she wrote and directed three films. She has taught acting in the graduate film department at NYU and in the Actors Studio MFA program at The New School and Pace University. She is a life-time member of the Actor’s Studio and the Ensemble Studio Theatre. In 1997 she and her husband decided to adopt a baby boy from the Republic of Georgia, but became caught in a politically motivated moratorium on International adoption. Her book, "The Road to Cali," chronicles, in journal form, the day by day agonizing struggle to save their child. This life changing experience inspired Corinne to write and perform a one-woman show entitled "Abandoned." At the suggestion of Ellen Burstyn, the Artistic Director of the Actor’s Studio, she further developed the story into a full-length play, "The Sun Shine’s East," which then premiered at the Marjorie Deane Theater in New York City.

"Safer in Silence" is Corinne's first feature-length film.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

What began as an attempt to understand my mother's distance toward me evolved into a quest to uncover the truth. It led me back to four generations of women, World War 11, and a diaspora that covers five continents. Uncovering a hidden past of Jewish ancestry, what I found was a common thread of hiding and secrets, and the long range effect of trauma.

Though the material in "Safer in Silence" covers over a century, the idea to actually make a documentary only came about in recent years. I felt I had to piece together the truth of my Polish-Jewish heritage, and in a more universal way, felt a responsibility to restore the memory of a people and a past that had been obliterated by war and suppressed by shame and fear. When I began I had no idea there would be more surprises, shocks, further searching, and that it would lead me to a place of understanding very different from where I started.

Everything in Safer in Silence was done in one take––with whatever camera I had available. Nothing was preplanned, re-enacted, or scripted. What you see in "Safer in Silence" happened in the moment, as I discovered it.