Lorie Conway
Director
Areas of Focus: Documentaries, Feature Films, Shorts
Biography
I am an independent film producer and director for Boston Film & Video LLC, a company I founded in 2000. nRecent projects include a series for Netflix, and the development of BEATRICE, a dramatic feature film based on her documentary film BEATRICE MTETWA AND THE RULE OF LAW, that tells the true story of the indomitable and brave human rights lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, in Zimbabwe.I have produced for all of Boston’s commercial networks and PBS, producing news magazine, documentary work, and short videos for non-profit organizations. nMy work has been awarded the Peabody, Columbia DuPont, Iris, and Cable Ace awards. I was awarded Harvard University ‘s Nieman Fellowship in Journalism, spending a year at the university pursuing academic scholarship. My film work includes:nForgotten Ellis Island, the documentary film and companion book (An Amazon Best Seller), after 10 years of broadcast distribution on PBS, the film was seen by over one million viewers on Amazon Prime during the covid pandemic; a short version of the film is shown in the Great Hall Museum on Ellis Island.nThe Devil Nex Door, a Peabody Award winning Netflix documentary series about an SS Guard, nUndaunted, Chasing History at the Boston Marathon, a film about the comeback of one unique runner and the city of Boston responding to the Boston Marathon terrorist bombing, nBeatrice Mtetwa, and the Rule of Law, a story about one of the bravest women in the world, as she defends victims of a violent regime in Zimbabwe, a lawless country.nThe Incredible Story of Bill Pinkney, a Peabody Award winning documentary about the first Black man of any nation to sail solo around the globe.
My current film, co-directed with South African filmmaker, Siobhan Hodgson, is Her Saudi Voice. Through the lives of three Saudi women of the same generation, the film explores how individuals navigate heritage, faith, family, and personal ambition within a society in motion. Their experiences reveal that social transformation rarely unfolds in a single direction. Instead, it emerges gradually through everyday decisions, relationships, and personal negotiations.nAt a moment when global attention is focused on Saudi Arabia, this film offers something seldom seen and heard: Saudi women speaking directly about their own lives.
nProjects in development include A Clear and Present Danger, about the Republican Supreme Court justices subverting voting rights, and a dramatic film, Guardians at the Gate, based on Lorie Conway’s original film and book about the Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital.nBoard work includes the Nieman Foundation for Journalism, the Associates of the Boston Public Library, and the Rosemary Pencil Foundation which provides school fees for students in Africa. Lorie Conway is a long-standing member of the Filmmakers Collaborative, which serves as the 501c-3 for independent film projects she produces and directs.
Films
Beatrice Mtetwa and the Rule of Law (2014)
Role: Director
Although Beatrice Mtetwa’s arena is Zimbabwe, her message and bravery are universal. As an African woman, she has stood up to one of the continent’s most brutal dictators, Robert Mugabe. In spite of beatings by police, Beatrice has courageously defended in court those jailed by the Mugabe government—peace activists, journalists, opposition candidates, farmers that had their land confiscated, ordinary citizens that had the courage to speak up.
Beatrice’s story has been distributed by UK based Journeyman Films and has been broadcast and screened on four continents.Through a Connect Grant from Brit Doc and the Bertha Foundation, thousands of dvd’s have been given away to schools, community groups and churches. After teachers in Uganda watched the film, they organized a school, naming it after Beatrice, and are teaching human rights education as part of the curriculum. Today, Beatrice continues to inspire those within Zimbabwe and others around the world seeking to protect the rights of others.
Forgotten Ellis Island (2008)
Role: Director
Forgotten Ellis Island is the first film and companion book to be produced about the abandoned immigrant hospital on Ellis Island. During the great wave of immigration, twenty-two medical buildings sprawled across two islands adjacent to Ellis Island, the largest port of entry in the United States. Massive and modern, the hospital was America’s first line of defense against contagious, often virulent disease. In the era before anti-biotics, tens of thousands of immigrant patients were separated from family, detained in the hospital, and healed from illness before be-coming citizens. 350 babies were born in the hospital; many were named after the doctor’s and nurses that helped deliver them. Ten times that many immigrants died on Ellis Island, 3,500 were buried in pauper’s graves around New York City.
PBS is distributing the film nationally and an abbreviated version of Forgotten Ellis Island is shown in the Ellis Island Museum.
EveryoneStory, Stories Worth Sharing Series (2016)
Role: Director
EveryoneStory is a web-based video series, 2-3 minutes in length, that is in development, focusing on individuals whose values are upheld by society but who are seldom given voice. They are the “invisibles”– those working in the service sector, making our lives more comfortable, but working in an economy that insufficiently rewards and recognizes their contribution. Some of them work two jobs to make ends meet. Others struggle to find full-time work. They differ in their racial, ethnic, and socio-economic backgrounds. But they share a determination to contribute to their families and communities.
Everyonestory seeks to give these individuals a clear voice and a dignified face. The series aims to affirm their efforts and their basic decency, showing how, in their own way, they are helping to make the world a better place. From their stories comes reassurance that time-honored values, such as hard work and care for others, remain a bedrock of society and a transcendent theme in our society —a fact that is often brushed aside in a mediated world fixated on celebrity, terrorism and crime.
Featured here is an EveryoneStory about Nena Pavlovic, who came to the US as a war refugee from Bosnia. Even though she had accounting skills, not speaking English limited her job opportunities. When a job was offered cleaning and restoring pianos she took it, and in the process, Nena found much more than a paycheck.
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