Nationwide — Through the years, folks have puzzled no matter occurred to Monty Ross, who co-founded 40 Acres & A Mule with Spike Lee? In keeping with Ross, he’s been honing his craft with a deal with “telling the tales behind our tales” with a movie language that makes use of storytelling by way of biopics, options, and documentaries.
Ross is at present a Filmmaker-in-Residence at Prince George’s County Neighborhood Improvement Company (PGCCDC), working alongside his roommate from Clark Atlanta College, Tolson Banner, founder and government director of PGCCDC. Collectively, they’ve chronicled the lifetime of DC legend John ‘Peterbug’ Matthews in a 47-minute documentary: Let Me Put This BUG In Your Ear: The John ‘Peterbug’ Matthews Story. The movie trailer was showcased at Prince George’s County Arts and Humanities Council’s Movie Competition at HBCU Bowie State College.
The documentary is now out there for viewing on VIMEO totally free:https://vimeo.com/1121020185 https://vimeo.com/user2882225/evaluate/1124920070/8ed37e45bb
Matthews is a fifth-generation Washingtonian. He has spent 45 years serving Capitol Hill’s Southeast group— many locals would say the final non secular and structural connection to DC’s civil/human rights motion; DC Dwelling Rule battle for the best to vote in Congress; and grassroots activism to combat in opposition to taxation with out illustration.
Since 1977, he has operated the Peterbug Shoe and Leather-based Restore Academy, now a DC Historic Landmark, with the road renamed in honor: Peterbug Matthews Manner SE. By way of his philosophy of “saving souls and therapeutic folks,” Matthews reworked a modest shoe restore store right into a group establishment coaching generations of younger folks in craftsmanship, entrepreneurship, and life abilities.
The Academy’s constructing emerged from Woman Chicken Johnson’s Society for a Extra Lovely Nationwide Capitol and was highlighted throughout her groundbreaking Nineteen Sixties beautification program. The location was chosen by Walter Washington, the primary Black mayor of a significant American metropolis, appointed by President Lyndon Johnson in 1967—a robust image of the civil rights period’s promise, federal imaginative and prescient assembly local people wants.
Now, let’s get again to the filmmaker, Monty Ross. Ross’s story started within the Atlanta College Middle (AUC). As freshmen at Morehouse School, two younger males understood that tales mattered: Monty Ross and Spike Lee. What started within the AUC lecture rooms would change into
40 Acres and A Mule Filmworks—a manufacturing firm that refused to whisper as a result of it ROARED!
Ross perfected his craft at Clark School, now Clark Atlanta College, below the exacting eye of Joan Lewis, Division Chair of Theatre Arts and director of the Clark School Gamers. Lewis was demanding. A real chief who taught the various ins and outs of changing into skilled artists, who insisted her college students go away a legacy of excellence that inspired others to be productive. Ross carries her classes nonetheless: the self-discipline, the caring severity, the understanding that theater—and later, movie—required nothing lower than devotion. Each Ross and Lee took mass media programs, grew to become pupil members of the AUC Newsreel movie membership, perfecting their writing and manufacturing abilities whereas dreaming bigger than their circumstances urged they need to. Ross additionally frolicked with Atlanta Road Theatre, studying what it meant to inhabit a narrative along with his complete physique earlier than he realized to border it with a digicam.
In 1986, they launched She’s Gotta Have It by Island Photos. Made for $175,000, it grossed practically $7 million. The movie introduced their arrival, however 40 Acres refused the consolation of a single triumph. They seized the chance: directing Michael Jordan’s Air Jordan sneaker marketing campaign, creating work that 4 a long time later stays among the many top-selling sneaker manufacturers worldwide – commerce and artwork, braided collectively.
Then got here the deluge. Over twelve years, Ross and Lee launched eight main movement footage with Columbia Photos, Common Studios, and Warner Bros Studios – Faculty Daze, Do The Proper Factor, Mo Higher Blues, Jungle Fever, Malcolm X, Crooklyn, and Clockers. Every movie was an announcement. Each refuses simple solutions. Ross produced, co-produced, executive-produced, and served as vice-president of manufacturing, constructing the infrastructure that allowed their imaginative and prescient to achieve screens throughout America.
Following Clockers, Ross stepped into his personal gentle. He produced Maintain the Religion, Child, a biopic about Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Ross additionally produced Escaping Jersey. Ross later segued into function documentaries—Unity Experience: Search For The Underground Railroad, Welfare to Work, After Affirmative Motion— a movie work that demanded America take a look at herself with out flinching. In music tv, Ross produced movies for GZA and Ghostface Killah: “Chilly World,” and “4th Chamber.” Songs that understood and underscored the mesmerizing poetry of the streets in its native tongue.
When Ross rejoined 40 Acres, he coordinated the corporate’s group outreach packages, recruiting interns for Inside Man, and supervised manufacturing for the She’s Gotta Have It tv collection — a full-circle return to the movie that launched their profession trajectory.
However Ross had at all times been a trainer. For fifteen years, he has shared his experience in after-school packages, summer season camps, and universities together with VCU, Outdated Dominion, Clark Atlanta, Howard College, and Florida A&M. His college students study greater than movie methods They realized that filmmaking is a type of bearing witness, that tales carry the load of lives lived and histories erased: calling out from the graves and carried by our ancestors.
In 2016, Ross directed The Opera Sport (now titled Scandalous Strikes), set in Nineteenth-century New Orleans. The movie gained the Filmmaker’s Selection award on the 2019 San Diego Black Movie Competition. From 2017 to 2022, he served as President of Operations for Soulidifly Productions, producing the award-winning 1 Offended Black Man and Love Dot Com: The Social Experiment.
In 2022, Ross grew to become Filmmaker-in-Residence at Ours Studios LLC, a Black-owned, Black- financed Decatur, Georgia manufacturing firm. Collectively, they launched As If We Have been Ghosts, a 60-minute documentary that debuted on Georgia Public Broadcasting. The movie excavates what was buried: the athletic and musical accomplishments of scholars in Black excessive colleges throughout Georgia, achievements that had been ignored, erased, written out of historical past as if that they had by no means sparkled, by no means mattered, by no means been.
Ross continues growing initiatives for all platforms. He shares his ideas in regards to the movie trade at suite57.com, the place he’ll quickly exhibit his watercolor work—a passion he’s pursued for the previous decade. He tells rising filmmakers to belief their creativeness first, to make their content material earlier than AI applied sciences declare all of the discoveries. “In any case,” he says, “shouldn’t you could have the enjoyable of discovering new and thrilling methods to inform tales that matter to you? Take the chance. Share your personal inventive concepts.”
Monty Ross is a proud graduate of Clark Atlanta College. Producer, director, trainer, painter. A person who understands that artwork isn’t ornament however necessity, that each story instructed in truth is an act of preservation, of defiance, of common love. Ross is on the market for talking engagements.
AboutMonty Ross is a legendary determine in American unbiased cinema and co-founder of 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks alongside Spike Lee. With a distinguished profession spanning over three a long time, Ross has produced and contributed to groundbreaking movies which have formed cultural conversations and impressed generations of filmmakers, together with She’s Gotta Have It, Do the Proper Factor, Mo’ Higher Blues, Malcolm X, Crooklyn, and Inside Man.
As a filmmaker deeply dedicated to empowering underserved communities, Ross continues to mentor rising artists and develop initiatives that amplify numerous voices in media and expertise. His work bridges the hole between Hollywood excellence and grassroots storytelling, making him a useful voice for academic establishments and faith-based organizations.
Why Guide Monty in 2026?
Monty is greater than certified to handle aspiring filmmakers, producers, and content material creators due to the next strengths that he brings to the desk:
Genuine Voice: A real pioneer who has walked the stroll, from unbiased movie struggles to Hollywood success
Instructional Worth: Sensible insights into filmmaking, inventive collaboration, and cultural storytelling
Inspirational Affect: A strong position mannequin for college kids pursuing careers in media, arts, and leisure
Cultural Relevance: Addresses crucial problems with illustration, variety, and group empowerment
Partaking Presenter: Identified for heat, knowledge, and the flexibility to attach with numerous audiences
For press or enterprise inquiries, contact Tolson Banner at 202-413-6431
