Greetings from Out Here

Ellen Spiro and her dog Sam travel the backroads of the American South to document gay life in the boonies and beyond.

Film Signature Image
Premiere Date
June 1, 1993
Length
60 minutes
Funding Initiative
Open Call
  • Award laurels-r Created with Sketch.
    1994 Deneuve Magazine-One of Top 10 Video Picks
  • Award laurels-r Created with Sketch.
    1994 New England Film Festival-Grand Prize
  • Award laurels-r Created with Sketch.
    1994 USA Film Festival-First Place, Non-Fiction
  • Award laurels-r Created with Sketch.
    1994 Chicago Lesbian & Gay International Film Festival-Grand Prize
  • Award laurels-r Created with Sketch.
    1994 SFFilm Festival-Golden Gate Award, Best of TV-Sociology
  • Award laurels-r Created with Sketch.
    1994 Nashville Independent Film Festival-Paul Clere Humanitarian Award of Excellence
    • Show morefewer awards
    Producer

    Ellen Spiro

    Ellen Spiro, who often works as a one-person crew, is known for making humorous social issue films. Her most recent film is Body of War (co-directed and co-produced with Phil Donahue). Body of War won Best Documentary of 2007 from the National Board of Review and premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival where it won an audience award.… Show more Additionally, Ellen Spiro and Phil Donahue received a 2007 nomination for Best Documentary from the Producer’s Guild of America. Spiro’s other award-winning films have been shown broadcast on television worldwide on PBS, HBO, BBC, CBC, and NHK and in multiple screenings at the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum Biennial exhibition. Her 1993 film Greetings from Out Here was the first ITVS production broadcast nationwide on PBS. Show less

    Other ITVS Films
    Roam Sweet Home
    Troop 1500

    We fund untold stories for public media.

    Learn more about funding opportunities with ITVS.

    MORE INFO

    The Film

    Tongue-in-cheek and pedal-to-the-metal, filmmaker Ellen Spiro and her dog Sam travel the backroads of the American South documenting gay life in the boonies and beyond. Sometimes hilarious, sometimes poignantly moving, and always intriguing, the mood of Greetings from Out Here varies as often as the scenery along the blue highways of the South — with its hubcap-decorated shacks, its embracing landscapes, its hilariously improbable place names, and most of all, its extraordinary people. Greetings from Out Here was the first ITVS production broadcast nationwide on PBS.

    Topics