“Spy High” might sound like a Disney or Nickelodeon series for tweens, but it is an award-winning docuseries that premieres on Amazon Prime on April 8, 2025. Edited by Baltimore filmmaker Scott Evans, “Spy High” won the Audience Award for TV Premiere at the 2025 South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in March. The series boasts Mark Wahlberg as executive producer alongside Archie Gips and Stephen Levinson via their Unrealistic Ideas banner.
The story at the center of “Spy High” begins in 2010, but Evans told Baltimore Fishbowl that there are myriad present-day implications.
In February 2010, 15-year-old Blake Robbins and his parents sued the Lower Merion School District in a class action lawsuit alleging that the MacBook laptops issued to students were used to spy on them while they were off school property, invading students’ privacy without their knowledge or consent.
The laptops were distributed by the school district with the intent of students using them in school and at home as part of the district’s “One-to-One” initiative. The laptops had built-in iSight webcams that could be activated remotely so that staff could see students when they were off school property.
“Unknowingly, there’s a lot of theft tracking and safety monitoring software on school-issued laptops today, and schools are kind of taking a policing control over their students, and a lot of people aren’t aware of it,” Evans said. “This case kind of really brought it to light. And I think the series will also just make people think about, ‘Who’s watching me, and how much of my privacy do I want to give up?’”
In October 2010, the Lower Merion School District agreed to pay $610,000 to settle the lawsuit, but Evans said many school-issued laptops still have some sort of software that actively monitors students’ chats, emails, and more today. The software can flag certain words students use and more. He acknowledges school districts may be motivated from a place of wanting to protect students from harming others or themselves, but the potential for abuse and exploitation is huge.
In 2022, Wired reported the use of a variety of monitoring software programs on school-issued student computers. Their research considered the additional lenses of emerging from a global pandemic, living in a post-Roe society, and ubiquitous school shootings, none of which were applicable in 2008 when Lower Merion’s “One-to-One” program began.
“Spy High” explores the potential damage to students’ sense of security, privacy, and safety, in addition to the possibility of being targeted by staff or falsely accused of something they have not done.
Evans moved to Maryland just before entering 7th grade, first attending private schools, then public school from 10th through 12th grades at Wilde Lake High School in Howard County. It was there he got the video and photography bug.
“We had this pretty cool video and photography program there at Wilde Lake,” Evans said. “I think a lot of the schools in Columbia and Howard County had really great programs like that. I was kind of in the outsider group of arts and punk type kids, and a lot of good friends and we would make little short films together on our little VHS camcorders.”
He thinks there was something about the culture of growing up there that led him to become a filmmaker, noting that six or seven of his very close friends from his youth also became involved in film as either editors, directors, or filmmakers. He moved to Los Angeles in 1999, began working in a post-production house, and his career in film was born.
Evans moved back to Maryland, though, after more than 20 years in LA, citing a desire to be closer to his family here. COVID had begun.
“I’ve already been working independently and producing documentary films and working from home a lot,” he explained. “It was getting harder and harder to commute anywhere in Los Angeles because of traffic. I became really nervous about whether I was able to see my family again.” He bought a house in Baltimore City and continues to have a flourishing film career.
“Spy High” was not his only winner at SXSW. Evans produced and edited “Butthole Surfers: The Hole Truth and Nothing Butt,” a documentary about the band of the same name, which also premiered at the festival. Other Marylanders worked on the film, including Matthew Pierce, who wrote the music. (Pierce happens to also be married to and partners with Lane Harlan, described as “The darling of Baltimore’s restaurant world.” The team is part owner of Clavel (with Carlos Raba), and operates The Coral Wig, W.C. Harlan, and Fadensonnen.)
“Butthole Surfers: The Hole Truth and Nothing Butt,” won the special jury award “Best of Texas.” The film will screen next at the Independent Film Festival of Boston (IFFB) on Saturday, April 26.
“Spy High” can be seen on Amazon Prime beginning on April 8, 2025. The trailer for the docuseries appears below.
