Frances McElroy, the founder and Executive Director of Shirley Road Productions, has produced and directed a wide range of award-winning documentaries, as well as educational and cultural videos for non-profit organizations. Founded in 1991, the mission of Shirley Road Productions is to create educational and cultural programs that are innovative in content, point of view and production.
Frances McElroy’s major documentaries include: BALLYCASTLE (2004), which won a CINE Golden Eagle award and the 2004 award for “best documentary” from the Society of Professional Journalists, Greater Philadelphia chapter, and will be distributed nationally by WHYY and American Public Television in 2006; MIRROR DANCE, co-produced and directed in 2005, which premiered nationally on the PBS series Independent Lens and received a CINE Golden Eagle Award; and AN ANGEL IN THE VILLAGE (1999), winner of a Regional Emmy Award for outstanding cultural program and a Gabriel Award.
Before becoming an independent filmmaker in 1991, Frances worked for ten years at WHYY, the leading public broadcast station in Philadelphia, as director of program development and as an Emmy Award-winning producer. Her public television program credits range from live public hearings and studio talk programs, to documentaries, including PHILADELPHIA’S ED BACON, about the renowned city planner, and the Emmy Award-winning WHO IS RED GROOMS, about the popular American artist. From June 1995 to March 1996 she was acting general manager of WYBE-TV in Philadelphia, where she later served as a programming and production consultant, executive producer of local production and executive producer of THROUGH THE LENS, an award-winning, curated series of independent film and video works.
In 1987/1988, McElroy directed the international public television INPUT conference which was hosted by WHYY, the Annenberg School of Communications, Temple University’s Radio, Television and Film Department and the Neighborhood Film and Video Project of the International House of Philadelphia. She served on the INPUT American program selection committee in 1990 and 1994. She has also served as a judge for the “Set in Philadelphia” Screenwriting Competition, sponsored by the Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema; proposal reviewer for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting; reader for the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Screenwriting Fellowship; evaluator for the ITVS Digital 99 and LInCS initiatives; and a judge for the Mid-Atlantic Emmy Awards. She has been an instructor in documentary production at the Scribe Video Center and was a founding Board Member of the Philadelphia Independent Film/Video Association (PIFVA).
McElroy received a 1998 Window of Opportunity Award from the Leeway Foundation as a documentary artist and an artist’s residency to attend the 40th Annual Robert Flaherty Seminar, funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts and sponsored by the International Film Seminars, Inc. She holds a B.A. in history/political science is from Rosemont College.