Ellen Spiro is an American documentary filmmaker. She is a producer and director of the television documentary '' Are the Kids Alright?'', which won an

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

in 2005. Spiro is a

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

at the University of Texas at Austin, where she has taught graduate and undergraduate courses in documentary, experimental film, and music film production in the Department of Radio-TV-Film. She is also a visiting professor at the University of California at Berkeley.

Career

Spiro's work grew out of the AIDS activist movement and tradition of grassroots video activism. Her early work was shot on a compact Sony palmcorder and highlighted gay and lesbian stories. One of her earliest award-winning works, '' Diana's Hair Ego,'' was the first small format video to be broadcast on national television. Her work was presented twice in the '' Museum of Modern Art''. Spiro created the 10 Under 10 Film Festival in Austin, TX. In 2006, Spiro was awarded an artist's residency at the Bellagio Center, sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation, in Bellagio, Italy. She worked with Phil Donahue on '' Body of War'', a film about paralyzed Iraq War veteran Tomas Young, which premiered at the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the most prestigious and largest publicly attended film festivals in the world. Founded in 1976, the festival takes place every year in early September. The organi ...

and won a 'People's Choice Award' and the 'Audience Award for Best Documentary' at the Hamptons International Film Festival. It was shortlisted for nomination for an Academy Award in 2007. In December, Body of War was named Best Documentary of 2007 by the National Board of Review. She was recognized by students as one of the top 10 professors at the University of Texas in 2018.

Films

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Fixing the Future
' (2010–2012) *'' Body of War'' (2007) *'' Troop 1500'' (2005) *'' Are the Kids Alright?'' (2003) *'' Atomic Ed and the Black Hole'' (2002) *'' Roam Sweet Home'' (1996) *'' Greetings From Out Here'' (1993) *'' Diana's Hair Ego'' (1991) *''Women on the Line: The Effect of Deindustrialization on Women in Buffalo'' (1988)

References

10
"Author: Ellen Spiro."
The Scholar & Feminist Online. Retrieved 6 Mar. 2024.

External links

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Ellen Spiro
in th
Video Data Bank

Ellen Spiro
at Women Make Movies {{DEFAULTSORT:Spiro, Ellen American documentary film producers American documentary film directors American cinematographers American women cinematographers University of Texas at Austin faculty University at Buffalo alumni 1968 births Living people Hampshire College faculty Film festival founders Artists from New Brunswick, New Jersey National Endowment for the Arts Fellows Rockefeller Fellows Film directors from New Jersey American women documentary filmmakers Members of ACT UP