James Agee Film Project
Biography
The James Agee Film Project was founded in 1974 by filmmaker Ross Spears, who was involved at the time in producing a documentary on the life of Tennessee author James Agee (1909-1955). Following the success of the film “Agee,” which was nominated for an Academy Award, the company expanded to produce and distribute documentary films. The company’s productions have included “The Electric Valley” (on the Tennessee Valley Authority), “Tell Me About the South,” and “Appalachia: A History of Mountains and People.”
Ross Spears was born in 1947 in Johnson City, Tennessee. His mother, Mary Alice Hunnicutt, was a public school teacher and his father, Ross H. Spears, Jr., was mayor of Johnson City in 1959-1961 and again in 1963-1965. Spears earned a MFA degree in 1974 from the California Institute of the Arts. He has been honored for his work by such awards as a Lyndhurst Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Tennessee Governor’s Award for the Arts and Humanities, and the aforementioned Academy Award nomination for best feature documentary.
