Ellen Spiro

"Come & Take It" captures the transformation of a young woman to leadership of America’s most irreverent anti-gun violence movement called #CocksNotGlocks. After concealed carry of handguns is legalized on the University of Texas campus, Jessica Jin posts clever humor on social media and with the help of a tight-knit group of young female students, a movement is born: The Great Texas Dildo Revolt.

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Over twists, presses, and wash-and-goes, filmmaker Cheryl Dunye joins other clients and hairstylist DiAna DiAna in her South Carolina salon to discuss the current impact of AIDS on Blacks in the south, and what has changed and stayed the same since DiAna was featured in a seminal short video by Ellen Spiro thirty years ago. Commissioned by Visual AIDS in 2017 as part of ALTERNATE ENDINGS, RADICAL BEGINNINGS, a program of seven videos prioritizing Black narratives within the ongoing AIDS epidemic curated by Erin Christovale and Vivian Crockett.

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Host David Brancaccio of APM's Marketplace leads a search throughout the United States of America for examples of innovative and sustainable local economies.

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Documentary about Tomas Young, a 25 year old veteran who got paralyzed in Iraq and became an peace activist.

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Their mothers may be convicted thieves, murderers and drug dealers, but the girls of Troop 1500 want to be doctors, social workers and marine biologists. With meetings once a month at Hilltop Prison in Gatesville, Texas, this innovative Girl Scout program brings daughters together with their inmate mothers, offering them a chance to rebuild their broken relationships. Intimately involved with the troop for several years, the directors (Ellen Spiro and Karen Bernstein) took their cameras far beyond meetings to explore the painful context of broken families. Powerful insight comes from interviews shot by the girls themselves, which reveal their conflicted feelings of anger and joy, abandonment and intimacy-as well as the deep influence their mothers still have on them.

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Atomic Ed & the Black Hole tells the story of a scientist-turned-atomic junk collector known as Atomic Ed. More than 30 years ago, Ed quit his job making "better" atomic bombs and he began collecting what he calls "nuclear waste," non-radioactive high-tech discards from the Los Alamos National Laboratory. As the self-appointed curator of an unofficial museum of the nuclear age called "The Black Hole," Atomic Ed reveals and preserves a history of government waste that was literally thrown in a trash heap.

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With her dog Sam and her 1964 Airstream trailer, Spiro joins an adventurous community of roamers and loners on wheels who live on the road full time--by economic neccessity, pleasure, or both. Behind the camera and behind the wheel, Spiro documents a unique world of vintage trailers, vintage dogs and vintage people, where the spirit of the moment collides with stories from the past.

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Interview with southern gays and lesbians highlight the issues surrounding being "Out" in the south as well as the impact of AIDS on the rural south.

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Sequel to DiAna's Hair Ego. Party Safe takes viewers on a relentlessly sexy journey to safer sex gameshow-style parties across America. Viewers will hear an extremely diverse range of sexual fantasies in a hilarious party atmosphere. Spiro's video work about AIDS disrupts the talking heads and pleading tone of early AIDS documentaries. Focusing on the two inspiring black women at the centre of the South Carolina AIDS Education Network, Spiro creates one of the most naturally inclusive universes ever seen on film.

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With highlights from the Vancouver 1990 Gay Games, this film recreates an event that empowered participants to strive for their personal best.

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Women who are HIV-positive discuss how they "came out" about their infection and became politically active.

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A documentary film about AIDS and one unconventional woman's efforts to educate her small, Southern community. DiAna DiAna is a local hairdresser who transformed her beauty parlor into a center for AIDS and safe sex information.

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ACT Up's closing down of the FDA in October 1988 is dramatically recorded by Ellen Spiro.

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"Come & Take It" captures the transformation of a young woman to leadership of America’s most irreverent anti-gun violence movement called #CocksNotGlocks. After concealed carry of handguns is legalized on the University of Texas campus, Jessica Jin posts clever humor on social media and with the help of a tight-knit group of young female students, a movement is born: The Great Texas Dildo Revolt.

Open details →

Atomic Ed & the Black Hole tells the story of a scientist-turned-atomic junk collector known as Atomic Ed. More than 30 years ago, Ed quit his job making "better" atomic bombs and he began collecting what he calls "nuclear waste," non-radioactive high-tech discards from the Los Alamos National Laboratory. As the self-appointed curator of an unofficial museum of the nuclear age called "The Black Hole," Atomic Ed reveals and preserves a history of government waste that was literally thrown in a trash heap.

Open details →