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Roswell Howard “Ross” Spears is a film producer and director who creates documentary films on American history, literature, biography, culture, the environment, and religion. His film work has focused primarily on the American South and on the Appalachian region in which he grew up. He is the founding director of the James Agee Film Project, a non-profit media production center named in honor of the author-poet-screenwriter, James Agee (1909-1955), who was also from Tennessee.

Spears received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for his film  Agee: A Sovereign Prince of the English Language (1980). His film To Render a Life (1991) won the Crystal Heart Award at the Heartland Film Festival and a Blue Ribbon at the American Film Festival, as well as a nomination for Best Feature of the Year by the International Documentary Association (IDA). His trilogy Tell About the South (2000) won a Nomination for Best Series of the Year from the IDA. In 2010, his four-film series (with producer Jamie Ross), Appalachia: A History of Mountains and People, was selected Editor's Choice Best Video of the Year by the American Library Association, and named to the media “Top of the List” awards.

Spears received a Lyndhurst Prize  and a Guggenheim Fellowship in the early 1980’s. He was awarded the Tennessee Governor’s Award in the Arts in 1980 and the Tennessee Governor’s Award in the Humanities in 1997.

Biography
Spears was born July 2, 1947, in Johnson City, Tennessee, the son of Mary (nee Hunnicutt), a public school teacher and homemaker,  and Ross Spears, Jr.,  a lumberman and local political leader. Spears is descended on his father’s side from the earliest European settlers in the East Tennessee region, who founded the town of Rogersville and built the early timber industry.

Spears graduated from Science Hill High School as valedictorian and state tennis champion in 1965. He received an A.B. degree from Duke University in 1969 with majors in English and Pre-Med. He received an M.F.A. degree from California Institute of the Arts in 1974, where his principal mentors were directors Terry Sanders, Don Levy, and Alexander MacKendrick.

Spears has one son, Nicholas Broussard Spears, born May 16th, 1995. He shares parenting with Jude Cassidy, Professor of Psychology at the University of Maryland. Spears’ permanent residence is in Johnson City, Tennessee. His film studio is in University Park, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, D.C.

Career
Ross Spears has been an independent documentary filmmaker since 1974. His documentaries have varied in style and content -- from intimate cinéma vérité portraits of family life, such as The Three Spears, to PBS-style narrated historical epics, such as Appalachia: A History of Mountains and People. Often praised for visual beauty, seamless editing, and complex narrative structures, Spears’ films are explorations of American life and culture. The films often emerge from Spears’ Southern and Appalachian roots, but transcend regional boundaries to inspire universal meaning.

Ross Spears is involved in all the crafts of film-making: cinematography, writing, editing, producing and directing. For musical scores Spears has turned to a fellow East Tennessean and accomplished composer, Kenton Coe. Other frequent collaborators include producer and writer, Jamie Ross; cinematographer,  Neil Means;  and editor, David Minckler. Spears’ work has benefited from interviews with many of the nation’s foremost literary and intellectual figures, such as John Hope Franklin, E.O. Wilson, Robert Penn Warren, Eudora Welty, Wilma Dykeman, Fred Wiseman, Studs Terkel, Alice Walker, Barbara Kingsolver, Robert Coles, and President Jimmy Carter.

During the course of his career, Spears has moved from a view of history and culture centered solely on the human story, to a perception of life that emphasizes the relationship of humans to the natural world and that looks back into geological time. This vision is a major theme in the documentary series Appalachia: A History of Mountains and People, which was made with producer and co-writer, Jamie Ross. Appalachia, which aired on PBS in 2009, is the first environmental history series ever produced in America and was selected Best Video of the Year 2010 by the American Library Association. Booklist reviewer Candace Smith described the "stellar series" as "beautifully shot and vast in scope...combines science, history, and arts in a tribute to Appalachia that offers hope for the future."

Spears is currently working on a new film, The Truth About Trees: A Natural and Human History. The three-part series will air on PBS in the next two to three years, and the major focus of the film will be the human connection to trees. This relationship is revealed through an in-depth exploration of the evolutionary history and environmental impact of trees, as well as their use by people for many beneficial environmental and technological services. The conclusion of the series will focus on the impact of climate change on trees and their ecosystems, and the effect this will have on our future.