Roam Sweet Home - The Director

About the Director

Ellen Spiro on "Life on the Road, or How to Be a Successful Filmmaker with No Permanent Address."
"Roam Sweet Home is my second documentary to be made on the road. As a full-time RV'er and filmmaker, I have traveled in nearly every state, often moving in the opposite direction of the snowbirds. Once I spent a winter in Northern Maine -- in my trailer. I was in San Francisco for the big earthquake, in Texas in sweltering 100+ degrees in August, and in Southern California for the big floods. But during the shooting of Roam, I did the sensible thing, heading south in the winter and north in the summer. I followed the snowbirds, most several decades older than me.
As a kid, my fantasy was to join the Partridge Family and live in their bus and play in their band. I've always dreamed of being on the road full-time and I've made the road my subject. Movement fuels my creative energy. Meeting new people -- each and every one a potential character -- gives me stories for my films.
At first glance, my 15-foot vintage Airstream looks like a humble silver shack on wheels. But inside I have a laptop computer (which I store in the oven) with internet connection, scripting and editing software, and the tiniest microwave made. I am in the process of installing an editing system so that I can have a full-scale, small-sized production studio on wheels. I have a small-format video camera mounted in the interior of the trailer which I use to catch spontaneous interviews with people who visit me. My tool box consists of a Swiss army knife, super-velcro and a tiny electric drill, in a vintage Snoopy lunch box. But not everything is so practical. I have a snow globe collection of over fifty. I had more but they froze up and cracked during my winter in Maine.
My security system is pretty low-tech -- a small dog with a big bark. I'll talk to anyone, but usually how I meet my "subjects" is by them talking to me. A woman alone with a dog and a lot of miniature high tech equipment provokes curious inquiry. I have friends all over the country (and a few in Mexico). I feel at home wherever I have friends and therefore my home is this whole country. Some of my friends are wandering hobos, some are famous writers and musicians. And some are just pretty average.
I've found that the only way to make in-depth portraits of people is to join them full-time where they are. The mobile lifestyle affords me this luxury. Usually, when I work on my films, I stay in a trailer park and hook up to their electricity. But the real joy of this lifestyle comes from "boondocking" -- unhitching my trailer in a beautiful landscape with no one else in sight. This is when I harness the power of my solar panel with which, given a lot of sunshine, I can operate my editing equipment and computer far away from an electrical outlet. To access the internet in the boonies, I use a wireless phone to connect via modem. I can be in the Nevada desert communicating with a New York producer or a London consultant. After I shoot footage, I immediately send it to a climate-controlled storage vault and use copies for rough editing in my trailer. I have a voicemail service and mail forwarding service through my membership in the Escapees club, an organization of over 40,000 full-time RV'ers. I can't wait to retire myself... but first I guess I have to get a job."

About Ellen Spiro (Writer/Director)
Award-winning filmmaker Ellen Spiro has lived on the road in her vintage Airstream for the last several years. She grew up in a family of Southern Jewish storytellers -- her father is a Harley-driving rabbi and trumpet player. This fall she will teach at the University of Texas, Austin, hitched up at the Shady Grove RV Park.
Spiro's earlier ITVS-funded project, "Greetings from Out Here," a road tour documenting Southern gay life in the boonies and beyond, won First Prize for Non Fiction at the USA Film Festival and the Grand Prize at both the Chicago and Philadelphia Gay Film Festivals. It aired on over 150 PBS stations and in foreign markets including Channel 4/London and CBC/Canada. Her first documentary, "Diana's Hair Ego," was also broadcast on public television.
Spiro received her Master's Degree in Media Studies from SUNY Buffalo and completed the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program. She taught video production and theory at Hampshire College, and now teaches documentary production seminars at media centers and universities throughout the country. She has received fellowships and grants from the Rockefeller Foundation, the NEA, the Jerome Foundation, Art Matters, Inc., Creative Time, Inc., the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Paul Robeson Fund and the Lucius and Eva Eastman Foundation. "Roam Sweet Home" was recently awarded First Prize in the National Media Owl Award's independent film competition.