If you're going to send young men and women to fight for this nation, tell the truth. That's one of the biggest reasons for the First Amendment. And we haven't been. And so I thought I will tell the story, the real story of the harm in harm's way.

Phil Donahue used the television talk show format he pioneered in 1967 to interview world leaders, celebrities, newsmakers and people from all walks of life. For over 29 years, DONAHUE examined human behavior, focused national debates on political and social issues and provided a democratic forum for presidential candidates.

The format he introduced on November 6, 1967, as THE PHIL DONAHUE SHOW on WLWD-TV in Dayton, Ohio, launched the first audience participation television talk show and changed the face of American daytime television. For his outstanding contribution to television and American culture, Mr. Donahue was inducted into the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame on November 20, 1993.

As host of DONAHUE, Mr. Donahue has presided over nearly 7,000 one-hour daily shows, many on-location broadcasts and several historic broadcasts from Russia.

For almost two decades Guggenheim and Rockefeller fellow Ellen Spiro has created award-winning and imaginative documentaries.

THE BOSTON GLOBE called Spiro's first documentary, DIANA'S HAIR EGO, a "terrific portrait of a remarkable woman" and it won the Motion Picture Society's Documentary Achievement Award. GREETINGS FROM OUT HERE was invited to the Sundance Film Festival and won first prize in the USA Film Festival. ROAM SWEET HOME, which challenged stereotypes about aging, was presented with the National Media Owl Award by Gene Siskel. ATOMIC ED & THE BLACK HOLE won the Best Documentary Short at the South by Southwest Film Festival. ARE THE KIDS ALRIGHT? combatted the invisibility of the mental health crisis among children and won an Emmy Award. TROOP 1500 was broadcast nationally on Independent Lens (PBS) and won multiple film festival awards. Her latest is BODY OF WAR (with Phil Donahue).

Spiro is a two-time recipient of the Rockefeller fellowship, a Guggenheim fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, Bellagio Residency Fellowship and winner of an Emmy Award for ARE THE KIDS ALRIGHT?. Spiro's films have been shown in film festivals and broadcast on television worldwide on PBS, HBO, BBC, CBC (Canada) and NHK (Japan). Spiro's works are housed in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York and in the Peabody Collection of the Museum of Television and Radio.

Spiro started Mobilus Media with Karen Bernstein in 2000. Spiro is currently an Associate Professor at the University of Texas in Austin.

>Read a Q & A with Ellen Spiro

Published on May 30, 2008.

Guest photos by Robin Holland