Filmmaker Bio & Storyteller
Louise Woehrle is a storyteller and the owner of Whirlygig Productions, Inc. She is an award-winning filmmaker whose projects have found national and international broadcast and distribution. Louise is passionate about telling stories that help us see ourselves and others in new ways, promote healing and connect us as human beings.
She recently completed her feature documentary A BINDING TRUTH, a timely story about two 1965 high school classmates, one Black, one white, who shared the same last name but little else. They meet again almost 50 years later after a shocking phone call that would change their lives. Their story, rooted in the South, is also America’s story – one of slavery’s legacy and our current racial divide. It’s a story of healing and shows a way forward as these two men explore their binding truth.
Woehrle’s feature documentary Stalag Luft III – One Man’s Story (director/producer/2019) is a personal story and compelling account of her uncle Charles Woehrle, an Eighth Air Force Bombardier and WWII prisoner of war who was held captive for two long years in the iconic prisoner of war camp Stalag Luft III depicted in the 1963 movie ‘The Great Escape.’ Stalag Luft III - One Man’s Story has already won 3 awards in 2019 that, include “Best of Fest” at the 42nd Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival, “Audience Award for Best Documentary” at the 20th Port Townsend Film Festival, and “Audience Award for Best Feature Documentary” at the 39th Breckenridge Film Festival. She was honored as “Filmmaker of the Month” in April 2020 by the Breckenridge Film Festival and received other acknowledgments and press, including a feature article in the New York Times and her appearance on the NBC Today Show with her Uncle Charles. Louise has been asked to speak at various Universities, Libraries, Museums, Places of Worship, and organizations.
Louise co-directed (with her brother John) the feature documentary Pride of Lions – the story of resilient people who survived the 11-year civil war in Sierra Leone - rebuilding their lives with hope for a sustainable future, “Best Documentary Audience Award” Red Rocks Film Festival, “Best Documentary,” Hardacre Film Festival, “ Best Doc Audience Award” Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival, with prestigious screenings at The Walker’s Women with Vision Festival and the World Bank in DC and acquired by 140 colleges and Universities worldwide.
Woehrle’s work as director/producer has taken her to Southern India, The Pathway, to Haiti, Hungry in Body-Hungry in Spirit and Feed My Flock for Feed My Starving Children, into the private world of teens in the educational series Be Real, to the homes of six hospice patients at the end of life, In Harmony for Life, and into three remote Cree communities faced with the epidemic of Diabetes among their people in the educational feature documentary Sweet Blood “Best PSA Award” American Indian Film Festival, and “Best Documentary” Cherokee Film Festival. Healing After War, directed by Mara Pelecis – an intimate portrait of the fallout of war on a Vietnam Vet and his family was well received at festivals worldwide (producer).
Her film projects as a producer have garnered several awards that, include a Regional “Emmy Award” for the dramatic short Grandfather’s Birthday (executive producer/casting), which screened at over 30 festivals worldwide, “Best Documentary” at several festivals for the feature documentary Poles Apart, including Breckenridge Festival of Film and Lake Placid Film Forum, and for the feature documentary Bushido, winning “Best Documentary” at Lake Placid Film Forum, “Best Feature” Smmash Film Festival, and an educational “Golden Apple” Award.
Her non-broadcast awards include two top “Telly Awards” for the educational film What’s it About? and the documentary, In Harmony for Life and an Independent Publishers Association Midwest Book Award (first place) for her role as consultant and lead publisher under SSC, LLC for the art/narrative book series Suicide Survivors’ Club - A Family’s Journey Through the Death of Their Loved One, and received Best New Producer of the Year by the Star Tribune for the original play Women: Scenes From Life.