Laurie Townshend
BiographyWriter, director, educator, and erratic blogger, Laurie Townshend credits her mantra, "You have as many hours in a day as Beyoncé" for her ability to make films that matter while successfully lobbying her 8th graders for "Coolest Teacher" nods.
With a thematic lens aimed squarely on acts of courage made visible through crisis, The Railpath Hero (2013) features a spellbinding performance by Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) Rising Star, Stephan James, in a story about the threads of resilience that hold a young athlete's life together in the wake of childhood sexual abuse. Laurie's take on human connectedness is explored online in documentary series, Human Frequency Streetdocs. (2014). Award-winning Charley (2015), one of five films executive produced by Alison Duke (Goldelox Productions) for The Akua Benjamin Legacy Series, connects the work of late civil rights activist Charles Roach to today's Black Lives Matter movement. Mothering in the Movement (2019), a National Film Board of Canada and Goldelox co-production is an intimate look at the power and potency of mothering in times of resistance.
In the role of director
A Mother Apart – Hot Docs 2024 (08/05/2024)
LGBTQ poet Staceyann Chin has spent decades trying to reconcile the abandonment by her mother in A Mother Apart. When Staceyann Chin was a 9-year-old in Jamaica, her mother Hazel for a new life in Montreal. Now a lesbian beat poet, Staceyann is still trying to cope with this abandonment while trying to be a […]