Laurie Weltz

Laurie Weltz recently completed her second feature film, SCOUT, which she directed from her award winning screenplay (PAGE Awards and the Champion Screenwriting Competition). The film stars India Ennenga, Ellen Burstyn, Danny Glover, Jane Seymour, Nikki Reed, James Frecheville, Tim Guinee and Onata Aprile.

Her first feature which she co-wrote and directed was the award winning WRESTLING WITH ALLIGATORS, which starred Joely Richardson, Aleksa Palladino, Claire Bloom, Adrienne Shelly, Sam Trammel and Jay O. Sanders. Alligators premiered in competition at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival and went on to many other festivals winning a gold award at the Worldfest Flagstaff Festival and a silver award at the Houston Film Festival. Alligators had a theatrical and video release in the U.S and abroad, and has aired on Showtime, Stars and the Sundance Channel.

Laurie has written two other feature scripts;, both of which have been optioned: WATERMOON, a ghostly thriller, which was optioned by Elevation Pictures and MONKEY RIVER, a family film, which she co-wrote with Jay C. Key, which was optioned by Rolmade Films. MONKEY RIVER won the Grand Prize in the PAGE Screenwriting Competition.

Prior to directing WRESTLING WITH ALLIGATORS Laurie worked as a freelance director on such diverse projects as DESIDERATA, a music video for the band the Pop Tarts, ELIZA’S ON THE ICE, a filmed backdrop for Bill T. Jones’ production of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and THE STREETS OF NEW YORK, a series of three minute mini-documentaries on NYC street personalities. She also directed and edited countless industrial videos at Broad Street Productions, where some of her clients included Viacom, The Economist Magazine, Variety Club Charities, and Michael Milken.

Laurie worked for several years as an editor on documentaries and television shows primarily for World of Wonder Productions on such projects as SHOCK VIDEO, an HBO feature documentary, which was nominated for an ACE award, MADE IN THE USA, a six part TV series for Channel 4 in the U.K. and NELSON SULLIVAN’S WORLD OF WONDER, a one hour video diary about the NY club scene in the 80’s. Her work for A&E on a documentary series entitle HEROES, was also nominated for an ACE award.

Laurie is a graduate of NYU Grad Film and her thesis film AT FIVE AND TWENTY-FIVE, won several awards and was aired on USA Television.

Prior to going to film school Laurie worked as an assistant production designer on two features and as a stylist, script supervisor and P.A. on over 50 commercials. She started her film career as a P.A. at WNEW-TV in New York on the Cheever Series, where she worked for directors James Ivory, Jack Hofsiss, and Jeff Bleckner.