New Baghdad
Among his short works, "Garden" received high praise from critics during the movie's film festival tour. Lawrence Toppman wrote in the "Charlotte Observer" that "James Spione creates more tension in 25 minutes than most writer-directors manage over two hours," and the film was Toppman's most recommended of the 1994 Charlotte Film Festival. Critic Greg Stacy of the "Orange County Weekly" called "Garden" a "real gem" with "the crushing inevitability of a Flannery O'Connor story." Reaction to Spione's later documentary work, however, has been somewhat more mixed. While "American Farm" was generally well received in newspapers such as the "Wisconsin State Journal" and the "Burlington Free Press", at least one review by "The A.V. Club" was quite critical. Nonetheless, the DVD version of the movie was selected by "Video Librarian" magazine as one of the Best Documentaries of 2008. More recently, "Incident in New Baghdad" was described by critics as "truly not worth missing" and "one powerful and disturbing film."