The Filmmakers
Project Director/Writer — Ross Spears
Ross Spears has been the Producer/Director/Writer for seven award-winning feature documentaries on subjects relevant to American culture and American history. Ross Spears is one of only two filmmakers in America to have had both a series (Tell About the South: Voices in Black and White) and an individual feature (To Render a Life) to be nominated Best Documentary of the Year by the International Documentary Association (IDA). All of Ross Spears’ films have been shown on PBS and have been judged among the best ever made in their subject areas.
Indeed, as a lifelong native of Appalachia, as well as a filmmaker who has devoted much of his creative energy to telling stories related to Appalachia, Project Director Ross Spears brings a wealth of personal knowledge and experience to the project. As a member of the Advisory Board to the upcoming Encyclopedia of Appalachia, Spears has been surrounded by scholars of all persuasions — from geologists and botanists to historians and ethnomusicologists — all of whom are centering their attention on the region called Appalachia.
His most recent project is Tell About the South: Voices in Black and White, a three-part series on the history of Modern Southern Literature. Lewis Simpson, Editor of The Southern Review called Tell About the South “A great film about a remarkable group of storytellers told by another remarkable storyteller. A landmark documentary.” Tell About the South was picked as an Editor’s Choice” by Booklist magazine, and features the greatest writers of the South, past and present, including interviews with most of the greatest living Southern writers.
Ross Spears’ other films include AGEE (1980) — the only film biography of an American writer ever to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary. AGEE also won a Blue Ribbon at the American Film Festival. The Electric Valley (1983), a history of the TVA, was nominated for an Emmy Award for Best Documentary. Long Shadows (1986) was selected to be part of the Southern Circuit Filmmakers Tour in 1990. To Render a Life, a feature documentary film based on the book Let Us Now Praise Famous Men by James Agee and Walker Evans, was nominated for a Golden Globe Award. Film critic Andrew Sarris has called To Render a Life “One of the best films of 1992.” The International Documentary Association nominated To Render a Life as Best Documentary of the Year in 1993. It also won a Blue Ribbon at the American Film Festival.
All films have been screened in numerous places, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Kennedy Center, the Smithsonian Institute, the Pacific Film Archives, the New York Film Forum, the American Film Festival, as well as many other festivals throughout the world. All films have been shown nationally on PBS, and reviews of each are included with this application.
Senior Producer — Paul Wagner
Paul Wagner is an internationally recognized Writer/Producer/Director. He won an Academy Award for Best Documentary for The Stone Carvers in 1984 and a National Emmy Award for A Paralyzing Fear: The Story of Polio in America in 1998. A native of Appalachia and a graduate of the University of Kentucky, Paul Wagner’s other documentary feature productions include Out of Ireland: the Story of the Irish in America, and Miles of Smiles, as well as the dramatic feature Windhorse.
Executive Producer/Writer Paul Wagner joined the APPALACHIA production in spring, 2000. Paul Wagner has brought to the project his long experience as a documentary filmmaker and writer, as well as his personal background as a native of Eastern Kentucky. Now a resident of the Blue Ridge region of Virginia, Paul Wagner has often chosen Appalachian subject matter for his films. In A Congress of Wonders he dramatized the work of Kentucky writer, Ed McClanahan. In East of the Blue Ridge he explored the literary and sports culture of his Blue Ridge Mountain area of Virginia. In Out of Ireland Paul Wagner created a feature length portrayal of Irish immigration to America, including sections of Appalachia.
Co-Producer/Writer — Jamie Ross
Jamie Ross was Associate Producer/Co-writer for Long Shadows: the Legacy of the American Civil War and was Researcher/Writer for the series Tell About the South: Voices in Black and White. She is a freelance writer, research librarian, and consultant with a wide range of expertise from internet research to film production. Her areas of interest are the history, literature and culture of Appalachia and the American South. Ms. Ross has extensive experience in educational outreach and is the author of several study guides.
In spring, 2000, Jamie Ross joined the Smithsonian Institute’s curatorial committee working on the 2003 Summer Folklife Festival, which was entirely devoted to Appalachia. As part of that committee, Ms. Ross worked with musicologists, folklorists and historians from throughout Appalachia as they developed the month long festival for 2003. Through her Catawba ancestors, Ms. Ross’s roots in Appalachia stretch back thousands of years.