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Spiro might win this ‘War’
Austin doc-maker Ellen Spiro and her co-director Phil Donahue might just take home Oscars for their Iraq-themed documentary “Body of War,” which has been shortlisted with 14 other films for best documentary feature at next year’s Academy Awards.
Spiro, a University of Texas film professor, is ecstatic but acutely aware of the pitfalls of getting the movie seen outside of the festival circuit.
“We have been getting amazing responses from critics and audiences, but we’ve had to do our own kamikaze theatrical distribution because of the supposed glut in the market for Iraq War related docs,” Spiro, a UT film professor, told us Tuesday.
“Distributors are running scared from a down market for indie films in general, and it is even worse for docs and Iraq docs in particular. But if I ran my life based on marketplace realities, I never would have become a documentary filmmaker or a professor in the first place.”
Spiro says the film, which has wowed crowds at festivals, will open theatrically in the spring, “even if we have to do it guerrilla indie style.”
Other Iraq-flavored docs on the shortlist include “No End in Sight,” “Taxi to the Dark Side” and “Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience.”
Five films from the shortlist will be selected as official Oscar nominees in January.
See more about “Body of War” HERE.
Spiro at work on ‘Body of War’
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