Ellen Spiro

For almost two decades, Guggenheim and Rockefeller fellow Ellen Spiro has created award-winning and imaginative documentaries, including Diana's Hair Ego, Greetings From Out Here, Roam Sweet Home, Atomic Ed & the Black Hole, Are the Kids Alright? (with Karen Bernstein) TROOP 15OO (with Karen Bernstein) and, now Body of War (with Phil Donahue).

Spiro is a two-time recipient of the Rockefeller fellowship, a Guggenheim fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, Bellagio Residency Fellowship and winner of an Emmy Award for Are the Kids Alright? Spiro's films have been shown in film festivals and broadcast on television worldwide on PBS, HBO, BBC, CBC (Canada) and NHK (Japan).

Spiro's works are housed in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York and in the Peabody Collection of the Museum of Television and Radio. Her films have pushed the boundaries of the documentary form, thriving both in the art world and in television and film festival venues.

The Boston Globe called Spiro's first documentary, Diana's Hair Ego, a "terrific portrait of a remarkable woman" and it won the Motion Picture Society's Documentary Achievement Award. Greetings from out Here was invited to the Sundance Film Festival and won first prize in the USA Film Festival. Roam Sweet Home, which innovatively challenged stereotypes about aging, was presented with the National Media Owl Award by Gene Siskel. Atomic Ed & the Black Hole won the Best Documentary Short at the South by Southwest Film Festival. Are the Kids Alright? exploded the invisibility of the childrens mental health crisis and won an Emmy Award. Troop 1500 was broadcast nationally on Independent Lens (PBS) and won multiple film festival awards. Body of War (with Phil Donahue) is the latest in a history of making politically provocative and inventive films.

Spiro started Mobilus Media with Karen Bernstein in 2000. Spiro is currently an Associate Professor at the University of Texas in Austin.