SPIRO FILMS


Ellen Spiro has been making cutting-edge documentaries for several decades and is a Guggenheim Fellow, a Fulbright Fellow, a two-time Rockefeller Fellow, and an Emmy Award winner. She was short-listed for an Academy Award for Body of War (co-directed by Phil Donahue) and won the National Board of Review's Best Documentary award and a nomination for Producer's Guild award for Best Documentary. Spiro is known for making boundary-breaking and funny social issue films for national and international television broadcasts (HBO, PBS, Sundance, BBC) and theatrical release.

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Recent Films

 

Sanctuary

Filmed in a redwood grove in San Francisco featuring Cantor Marsha Attie, Jonathan Ferris, Colm O'Riain, Rabbis Sydney Mintz and Beth Singer. Thank you Congregation Emanu-el and 13th Tribe.

Video by Ellen Spiro with Josh Peterson and Brittani Burgess.


DiAna's Hair Ego REMIX

30 years after Ellen Spiro made “DiAna’s Hair Ego: AIDS Info Up Front,” the AIDS crisis is still raging in the deep south where the film was shot.  Director Cheryl Dunye, after reading about the new AIDS crisis in the South, visits DiAna and Bambi in the hair salon where they first began their innovative safe sex education work.

DiAna’s Hair Ego REMIX is the beginning of a new story and new hope in the face of an ongoing tragedy.
Directed by Ellen Spiro and Cheryl Dunye
Produced by Alexandra Juhasz, Ellen Spiro, Jennifer Steinman
Shot by Ellen Spiro
Edited by Jennifer Steinman
Story Editor:  Alexandra Juhasz

Featuring:

DiAna DiAna
Ernest Brown
Cheryl Dunye
Dr. Bambi Gaddist
Bailey Goff
Greg Green
Stacy Jennings
Claretha Johnson

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Body of War

Directed and Produced by Ellen Spiro and Phil Donahue

Body of War was shortlisted for an Academy Award. With original music by Eddie Vedder and graphic art by Shepard Fairey, Body of War is an intimate and transformational feature documentary about the true face of war today. Meet Tomas Young, 25 years old, paralyzed from a bullet to his spine - wounded after serving in Iraq for less than a week. 

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"No More", Music Video directed by Ellen Spiro, with original song by Eddie Vedder

Eddie Vedder, Tomas Young, Ellen Spiro and Phil Donahue at the Premiere of "Body of War" at the Toronto International Film Festival

Eddie Vedder, Tomas Young, Ellen Spiro and Phil Donahue at the Premiere of "Body of War" at the Toronto International Film Festival


Fixing the Future

Directed and Produced by Ellen Spiro

Do people exist to serve the economy, or should the economy exist to serve the people? In Fixing the Future, host David Brancaccio, of public radio's Marketplace and NOW on PBS, visits people and organizations across America that are attempting a revolution: the reinvention of the American economy.

Animations from the film, Fixing the Future: