A trip to Key West may mean a wild spring break for many college students, but for Sandra Spanier, her trip sparked an interest that has stayed with her throughout her life.

Spanier, English professor and general editor of the Hemingway Letters Project, visited Ernest Hemingway's home in Key West as an undergraduate student and became instantly drawn to his works.

"He was a complex, contradictory human being," Spanier said.

Last week, Spanier traveled to New York for her very first movie premiere -- for the documentary, Ernest Hemingway: Rivers to the Sea, for which Spanier was interviewed.

"I was asked to be a scholarly consultant to the film," she said.

The documentary will air at 8 p.m. Monday on WPSX-TV and is running as a part of the Public Broadcasting System's (PBS) American Masters: The Writers Series.

Film producer DeWitt Sage is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, and received a Peabody award for his work on a previously filmed documentary in the same series, about the author F. Scott Fitzgerald.

"If there was a villain in the film about Fitzgerald, it was Hemingway," Spanier said.

This portrayal spurred Hemingway's son, Patrick, to want to make the documentary.

"[Patrick Hemingway] liked the film about Fitzgerald so much he wanted Sage to make one about his father," she said.

Spanier said Hemingway's personality is sometimes characterized as "swaggering, macho, male chauvinistic, alcoholic, adventurer," which she said can make people view him as one-dimensional. But Spanier said she believes there is a "distinction between a writer's personality and the art that person creates."

Although the documentary is not the first about Hemingway, Spanier said she thinks this one will be unique.

"It will cut through stereotypes and get back to the work itself," she said. "It's a beautifully made film with beautiful photography."

The film has no overall narrator using Hemingway's words, but it includes interviews of several people.

It also includes footage from important places in Hemingway's life, including Paris and Cuba, Spanier said.

"It evokes many of the places central to Hemingway's life," she said.

Another unique feature of the documentary are interviews from Cuban scholars, who have never been interviewed by members of the North American media, Spanier said.

Along with her work on the documentary, Spanier is currently working on the Hemingway Letters Project, which aims to publish 7,000 to 8,000 of his personal letters.

"The project involves scholars from around the world," she said.

Both projects on Hemingway were funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and named "We the People" projects, a special recognition by the NEH, Spanier said.

"The fact that Hemingway has been singled out for this designation shows the important part he is in American history," she said. "Public persona of Hemingway doesn't matter in the end. It's what he left us on the page."