Eleanor Jessie Coppola (née Neil; May 4, 1936 – April 12, 2024) was an American documentary film director, screenwriter, and artist.

[3] While working on the set of the 1963 horror film Dementia 13, she met her future husband Francis Ford Coppola.

The couple married in Las Vegas on February 2, 1963,[citation needed] and gave birth to their first son Gian-Carlo Coppola.

[citation needed] Many of her documentaries consist of behind-the-scenes looks at such films as The Virgin Suicides and Marie Antoinette, which were directed by her daughter Sofia Coppola.

This would not be the only documentation of the making of Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now as she decided to film a documentary based on the same movie.

[citation needed] The documentary film Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse was co-directed by Eleanor Coppola, Fax Bahr, and George Hickenlooper.

Such events caught on camera include the nervous breakdown of the film's lead Martin Sheen as well as the trouble facing Francis Ford Coppola when an expensive set was destroyed.

[6] The documentary film was released in 1991, which went on to win several awards such as the Emmy for "Outstanding Individual Achievement – Informational Programming – Directing".

The book consists of short passages from each day beginning with the death of her oldest son Gian-Carlo Coppola at the age of 22 and the birth of her granddaughter Gia just months later.

[10] The book is told through her own point of view and although she mentions certain events concerning those around her, such as the controversy surrounding Francis' decision to cast Sofia in The Godfather Part III, her memoir chronicles the inner struggles and problems the family faced at the time.