Alison Ellwood

Directing

Alison Ellwood

Born

1961-07-20 (65)

Place of birth

Australia

Known for

Directing

Credits

15 titles

Alison Ellwood’s feature film directing credits include Let the Canary Sing, Laurel Canyon, The Go-Go’s, American Jihad, History of the Eagles, Spring Broke and Magic Trip: Ken Kesey’s Search for a Kool Place. Her television directing credits include Women of Troy for HBO Sports, The Osbournes: The Price of Reality for the A&E series Culture Shock, Locked In: The Victoria Arlen Story for ESPN’s 30 for 30 Shorts, CNN’s Death Row Stories, No Limits for ESPN’s Nine for IX series, The Human Behavior Experiments, the Emmy Award-winning series American High, The Travelers, and Sixteen. She has produced and edited several feature documentary films including Oscar-nominated Enron: The Smartest G…

Known for

The Eisen Hour poster
5.0

The Eisen Hour is a weekly hour-long, six-episode series featuring Emmy nominated broadcaster, Rich Eisen. Each week, Eisen will sit down with some of the most dynamic personalities from the world of sports and entertainment. True to his style, Rich will unearth unique stories and opinions using his total recall of all things movies and pop culture. Each week highlights a joyful, engaging, and oftentimes hilarious look at the world of entertainment through the lens of Eisen’s uncanny interviewing style.

The Eisen Hour

2021

Locked In poster
NR

As a young girl Victoria Arlen truly had the world ahead of her. But at the age of 11, she began to suffer from an illness that baffled her doctors and kept Victoria locked in her own body.

Locked In

2018

Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson poster
6.9

Fueled by a raging libido, Wild Turkey, and superhuman doses of drugs, Thompson was a true "free lance, " goring sacred cows with impunity, hilarity, and a steel-eyed conviction for writing wrongs. Focusing on the good doctor's heyday, 1965 to 1975, the film includes clips of never-before-seen (nor heard) home movies, audiotapes, and passages from unpublished manuscripts.

Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson

2008

Spring Broke poster
6.0

Documentary charting the raucous history of the infamous spring vacation revelries in Daytona, which started in the early 60s, and by the 1980s led to the arrival of tens of thousands of college students, lured by lust, booze, fun in the sun and eventually, the hope to make it onto MTV.

Spring Broke

2016

American Jihad poster
8.0

Documentary probe into the phenomenon of home-grown Jihadism, analyzing the strategic outreach and tactics employed by terrorists in order to reach susceptible members of society and what can be done to prevent it. Featuring intimate stories from former Jihadists radicalized to commit violent acts of terrorism and their families and communities caught in the crosshairs.

American Jihad

2017

The Go-Go's poster
7.1

As the first all-female band to play their instruments, write their songs and have a No. 1 album, The Go-Go’s made history. Underpinned by candid testimonies, this film chronicles the meteoric rise to fame of a band born in the LA punk scene who became a pop phenomenon.

The Go-Go's

2021

Series credits

Behind the camera

Locked In poster
NR

As a young girl Victoria Arlen truly had the world ahead of her. But at the age of 11, she began to suffer from an illness that baffled her doctors and kept Victoria locked in her own body.

Locked In

2018

Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson poster
6.9

Fueled by a raging libido, Wild Turkey, and superhuman doses of drugs, Thompson was a true "free lance, " goring sacred cows with impunity, hilarity, and a steel-eyed conviction for writing wrongs. Focusing on the good doctor's heyday, 1965 to 1975, the film includes clips of never-before-seen (nor heard) home movies, audiotapes, and passages from unpublished manuscripts.

Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson

2008

Spring Broke poster
6.0

Documentary charting the raucous history of the infamous spring vacation revelries in Daytona, which started in the early 60s, and by the 1980s led to the arrival of tens of thousands of college students, lured by lust, booze, fun in the sun and eventually, the hope to make it onto MTV.

Spring Broke

2016

American Jihad poster
8.0

Documentary probe into the phenomenon of home-grown Jihadism, analyzing the strategic outreach and tactics employed by terrorists in order to reach susceptible members of society and what can be done to prevent it. Featuring intimate stories from former Jihadists radicalized to commit violent acts of terrorism and their families and communities caught in the crosshairs.

American Jihad

2017

The Go-Go's poster
7.1

As the first all-female band to play their instruments, write their songs and have a No. 1 album, The Go-Go’s made history. Underpinned by candid testimonies, this film chronicles the meteoric rise to fame of a band born in the LA punk scene who became a pop phenomenon.

The Go-Go's

2021

Casino Jack and the United States of Money poster
7.1

A probing investigation into the lies, greed and corruption surrounding D.C. super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his cronies.

Casino Jack and the United States of Money

2010

No Limits poster
7.8

Suffering from scoliosis as a teenager, Audrey Mestre found freedom in the ocean. Years later, she discovered another reason to love the water: the elusive, often raucous free diver Pipin Ferreras. As Mestre follows Ferreras's almost spiritual quest to push his limits underwater, she moves from supporter to ardent free diver to world-class competitor. Then a challenge from a rival pushes the couple to the brink of what is possible, both above and below the surface.

No Limits

2013

Let the Canary Sing poster
6.5

A chronicle of Cyndi Lauper's meteoric ascent to stardom and her profound impact on generations through her music, ever-evolving punk style, unwavering feminism and tireless advocacy. This documentary takes the audience on an engaging exploration of a renowned and pioneering artist who has left a remarkable legacy with her art.

Let the Canary Sing

2023

Let the Canary Sing poster
6.5

A chronicle of Cyndi Lauper's meteoric ascent to stardom and her profound impact on generations through her music, ever-evolving punk style, unwavering feminism and tireless advocacy. This documentary takes the audience on an engaging exploration of a renowned and pioneering artist who has left a remarkable legacy with her art.

Let the Canary Sing

2023

Boy George & Culture Club poster
NR

Set against the backdrop of 1980s Britain, four young men – Boy George, Roy Hay, Mikey Craig, and Jon Moss – formed a multi-racial, ethnically diverse, and sexually liberated band with a style and sound that challenged the status quo during the era of New Romantics and Margaret Thatcher’s Britain.

Boy George & Culture Club

2026

Magic Trip: Ken Kesey's Search for a Kool Place poster
6.8

A freewheeling portrait of Ken Kesey and the Merry Prankster’s fabled road trip across America in the legendary Magic Bus. In 1964, Ken Kesey, the famed author of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” set off on a legendary, LSD-fuelled cross-country road trip to the New York World’s Fair. He was joined by “The Merry Band of Pranksters,” a renegade group of counterculture truth-seekers, including Neal Cassady, the American icon immortalized in Kerouac’s “On the Road,” and the driver and painter of the psychedelic Magic Bus.

Magic Trip: Ken Kesey's Search for a Kool Place

2011

Magic Trip: Ken Kesey's Search for a Kool Place poster
6.8

A freewheeling portrait of Ken Kesey and the Merry Prankster’s fabled road trip across America in the legendary Magic Bus. In 1964, Ken Kesey, the famed author of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” set off on a legendary, LSD-fuelled cross-country road trip to the New York World’s Fair. He was joined by “The Merry Band of Pranksters,” a renegade group of counterculture truth-seekers, including Neal Cassady, the American icon immortalized in Kerouac’s “On the Road,” and the driver and painter of the psychedelic Magic Bus.

Magic Trip: Ken Kesey's Search for a Kool Place

2011

My Trip to Al-Qaeda poster
5.8

Journalist Lawrence Wright brings his multilayered one-man play to the screen as he discusses how a reporter remains objective while covering highly charged issues such as 9/11, Al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden's past and the history of Islam. Wright examines the Muslim religion, Al-Qaeda's rise to power and bin Laden's complicated relationship with the rulers of Saudi Arabia in this riveting documentary from Academy Award-winning director Alex Gibney.

My Trip to Al-Qaeda

2010

Women of Troy poster
5.5

Women of Troy is an HBO Sports documentary exploring the transcendent career of the Cheryl Miller-led USC Trojans and their impact on women’s basketball.

Women of Troy

2020