About

In collaboration with the Oberlin Heritage Center and Diverse Media Zone, documentary filmmakers Scott Spears and Christina Paolucci were awarded over $40,000 in grants from the Ohio Humanities Council, the Ohio History Connection and the Greater Columbus Arts Council to recount the story of the Oberlin-Wellington Rescue of 1858.  

The filmmakers began researching the story through a planning grant from the Ohio Humanities Council where they produced a short concept piece, A Higher Law: The Oberlin Wellington Rescue.

They were awarded a media grant through the Ohio Humanities, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities and were one of 14 applicants to receive a 2021 grant from The Ohio History Fund through the Ohio History Connection. In addition to several smaller grants from the Greater Columbus Arts Council.

They completed interviews with scholars in the summer of 2021 and are currently in post-production of the film. They expect to complete the film in late 2022. 

PAST PROJECTS  Spears and Paolucci have produced numerous documentary projects together including Zane’s Trace – A Road into the Wilderness (2012), The Legacy of Eastgate (2012), Historic Woodland Park (2015) and The Bourguignons:The Artist & The Anthropologist (2019). Their documentary work has been supported through numerous grants from such organizations including the Ohio Humanities Council, Ohio History Connection, the Greater Columbus Arts Council, the Columbus Landmark Foundation and United Way of Central Ohio.

FILM PRODUCERS BACKGROUND

Scott Spears is an Emmy winning cinematographer that teaches screenwriting and film production at Ohio State University in the Department of Theatre, Film and Media Arts. He has a B.A. and M.A. in cinema production from Ohio State University. He won his Emmy for his cinematography on the PBS short film adaptation of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s, “The Birthmark,” and won a Blue Cable Access Award for directing the documentary “Reasonable Doubt.” Spears, a native of Portsmouth, Ohio, spent a decade working in Los Angeles, California with over 30-feature films credited to his name and owns and operates the video production company, Productions Partners Media.

Christina Paolucci is an award winning photojournalist and documentary filmmaker. She has a B.A in Photojournalism from Western Kentucky University, a M.A. in Photography from Ohio University and a M.S. in Women’s Studies from Mankato State University. She has been recognized twice with the Best Press Photographer’s Portfolio from the Minnesota Newspaper Association, the Humanitarian Award from the Associated Press. Paolucci has been featured in two Rick Smolan’s day-in-a-life picture book series; America 24/7 and My America at Home. Paolucci, originally from northern Kentucky, was a daily news photographer for a decade in Minnesota and currently teaches at Columbus College of Art & Design and operates a photography business, Second Spring Media.