
Ruth Lawrence
Directing
Biography
Ruth Lawrence is a filmmaker based in St. John’s, NL. Ruth’s feature films include Little Orphans (Best Canadian Feature, Whistler Film Festival 2020), Hopeless Romantic (2018), and the comedy feature, Party Pirate, sold-out its opening Gala overnight at the St. John’s International Women’s Film Festival in October 2023. Her documentaries A Lot of Love in the Room (2021) and Circus by Komatik (2019) have been featured on CBC Gem. She has directed, written, and/or produced on over 70 short films and webisodes. She’s writing two features, one with Sherry White and one with Emily Bridger. Ruth’s honours include the Joan Orenstein Best Actress Award, the RBC Michelle Jackson Award for Emerging Filmmaker, the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council’s Artist of the Year, the Queen’s Jubilee Medal, the YWCA Woman of Distinction, a WIFT-AT WAVE Award, the national Leslie Yeo Award for Volunteerism, and the inaugural Ross Leslie Award for her contributions to film and theatre.
Known For

Detective Charlie Hudson teams up with what he calls his "highly trained law enforcement animal" German Shepherd dog named Rex who he prefers to team up with because he doesn't talk his ear off.
Hudson & Rex

Aided by his own remarkable abilities and an eclectic team of associates, real estate agent Luke Roman specializes in “metaphysically engaged properties,” aka haunted houses. Together they investigate, clear and close the houses nobody else can.
SurrealEstate

A group of humans arrive on Sirius 6-B to investigate an SOS signal sent out from the planet, which has been supposedly deserted since the destruction of the man-made weapons known as "screamers." Once the squad arrives, they find a group of human survivors eking out an existence in an old military outpost.
Screamers: The Hunting

In this chilling, atmospheric thriller, Katelyn (Lindy Booth) seeks answers about the brutal murder that claimed her mother's life 20 years ago in the lighthouse where they lived, a crime for which her grief-and-guilt-crazed father has long held the blame. When developers descend on the abandoned lighthouse and begin to vanish mysteriously, Katelyn comes face-to-face with the evil haunts the family's former abode.
Behind the Wall

A small fishing village must procure a local doctor to secure a lucrative business contract. When unlikely candidate and big city doctor Paul Lewis lands in their lap for a trial residence, the townsfolk rally together to charm him into staying. As the doctor’s time in the village winds to a close, acting mayor Murray French has no choice but to pull out all the stops and begin The Grand Seduction.
The Grand Seduction

This award winning miniseries traces the difficult passage of young Mary Keane (Aoife McMahon) from servitude in Ireland to the squalor of rough-and-tumble Newfoundland in the early 1800s. Escaping attempted rape and abuse, Mary moves on with her infant daughter to find shelter at a remote fishing station run by Thomas Hutchings (Colm Meaney). In a time and place where life and death are a hair's breadth apart, Mary joins the community's struggle for survival against sickness and starvation. All of the Cape's people are fugitives of one kind or another, but by pulling together through hardships and tragedies, they forge a new life of hope - and even love.
Random Passage

Maura Mackenzie believes the world is hers to conquer. With her career as a concert pianist gaining momentum, it seems her beauty and talent will be strong enough to mask the demons that threaten to engulf her. But with an absent husband and two young daughters at home, her precarious sanity begins to unravel until one summer day, burning with manic energy, she makes a terrible mistake — a mistake that will change her life forever. The consequences for Maura are catastrophic: her ambitious husband runs for his life, taking the children with him, leaving Maura to lapse into a full-scale breakdown. Life as she knew it is now over. With the help of her father, Ian, Maura works to reclaim her life and waits for a miracle to bring her daughters home. But when the fates align, can the past be forgiven?
An Audience of Chairs

When Draper Doyle’s father drops dead two days after his birthday, Draper realises that he his memories of visiting his father two days previously have vanished. With the help of Uncle Reg, he attempts to piece his memory back together.
The Divine Ryans
A family affected by the opioid crisis struggles to stay together.
Opioid Scare

An 11 year old boy pays a farewell visit to his estranged father. What ensues is a strained and inappropriate, but heartfelt exchange between a father and son whose paths have crossed for the briefest of moments and likely won't again for a long time.
Little Man

The Untold Story of the Suffragists of Newfoundland (1999) is a docu-drama celebrating the thirty year struggle by the women of Newfoundland to win the right to vote.
The Untold Story

Didi and Max are the most competitive best friends in the fourth grade. But their friendship hangs in the balance when Principal Jack announces a school-wide contest to see who can sell the most fertilizer.
Winners

A graduate of an elite training school is determined to discover the identity of her lost father. She begins a dangerous journey, meeting an array of characters as she discovers her past. Stars Henry Czerny, Michael Luke.
Anchor Zone

A hack filmmaker wastes the money lent to him by a mysterious organization, and so has to take matters into his own hands by locking a cast of actors in a house and becoming the villain in his own slasher movie.
Incredible Violence

The wedding of their youngest sister, Janet, brings Gwen and Kay home to St. John’s, Newfoundland. While Janet struggles to hide her family’s dysfunction, Kay can’t help but create chaos wherever she goes and Gwen finds herself paralyzed by a past secret. The complicated web of relationships between the sisters, their Aunt Maureen, their absent mother, and Kay’s young daughter Billie, is only illuminated by the wedding. Gwen’s attempts to get Kay to take responsibility for her daughter highlights her own abandonment of her ex, Tom, leading them all to a not-so-perfect storm of a reception.
Little Orphans

Christmas lover Lori Jo and her roommate head to Yuletide Springs for a longtime tradition to honor her late grandmother — and meet two men, Carl and Jason, along the way.
Everything Christmas

Bernice, a 15 year old misfit runs away from her rural Newfoundland community in search of Pignut, a tormented and violent gutter punk, after he steals her father's ashes right out of his urn.
Hunting Pignut

An old flame dredges up family secrets. Will four sisters finally put their jealousies and misconceptions to rest?
Four Sisters

Hank and his wife, Jules, both in their 40s, set out for a leisurely summer boat ride. As they drift out into the harbor, we quickly realize that things between them are not as peaceful as we've been led to believe.
Some Saturdays

Diminished by grief, 18-year-old Tess (Kelly Van Der Burg) is moving through her life like a ghost. The one thing that comforts her is listening to the music of Danny Sharpe (Joel Thomas Hynes), a local legend who left home almost 20 years ago. Tess is stunned when she wakes up one day to find him in her kitchen, igniting a spark of life in her that grows out of control.