Robert Patton-Spruill is an independent film director, screenwriter, producer, and teacher. His company, FilmShack, is based in Boston. Spruill lives in Roxbury, MA with his wife and daughter. Spruill is a professor at Emerson College, where he is Director in Residence.
Biography
Spruill was born in Roxbury and raised by theatre artists James Spruill and Linda Patton, who worked with the New African Company. He attended BU, but decided to pursue film instead, and wrote the screenplay for his first film Squeeze while still in college. Squeeze was shot on a US$155,000 budget, and was cast with young Boston theatre students whom Spruill taught at the Dorchester Youth Collaborative. Squeeze was bought by Miramax at the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival, after which Spruill was signed for international representation by the William Morris Agency in Hollywood. Patton-Spruill later moved back to Boston, where he currently resides.
Films & Career
After his first film, Patton-Spruill directed Body Count, a straight-to-video Showtime feature, after which he and his wife Patti Moreno over a 10-year period opened their own production company, studio, and rental business for low-budget filmmakers in his home town of Roxbury, MA. Since the opening of FilmShack in 2000, Spruill and Moreno produced numerous short films, music videos and independent features, including Turntable. The music video Spruill directed for the popular hip hop bandPublic Enemy led to the production of the full-length documentary Welcome to the Terrordome. Spruill made the documentary Do It Again in 2010, which followed Boston Globe reporter Geoff Edgers on his irrational quest to reunite the classic rock bandThe Kinks. Do It Again premiered at the Rotterdam International Film Festival on January 28, 2010, and was shown at several film festivals. Other work directed by Spruill includes , a web series starring his wife as Patti Moreno the Garden Girl. The website has produced over 200 how-to videos about urban gardening, and FilmShack produces gardening and home improvement videos for HGTV.com.
