About

‘Documentaries no less than feature films have their auteurs.  Lynn Alleway’s talent lies in persuading ordinary people to go before the camera and talk openly about their personal lives.’ (The Times)

I’m an award-winning UK-based filmmaker with a passion for telling human stories through a powerful, intimate, and sensitive lens. Over the course of my career, I’ve produced and directed more than 30 premium and prime-time documentaries, with a further 30 credits as executive producer. My work has aired on the BBC, Channel 4, and ITV, and streamed globally via Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Apple TV.

Often described as a doyenne of observational filmmaking, my signature style blends striking, award-winning cinematography with compelling access and emotionally rich interviews. From society’s most vulnerable to its most privileged, I’m drawn to subjects that reveal the nuance and complexity of the human experience.

My debut film won the Broadcasting Press Guild Award for Best Documentary. ‘Quality Time’ captured a zeitgeist: the dilemmas facing professional working mothers trying to have it all. The idea came to me as I sat on a park bench with my then very small son Josh, listening to the mothers complaining about their nannies… and the nannies complaining about the mothers.  

Years later ‘Amish: A Secret Life’ garnered two BAFTAs.  In a world in which cameras are usually forbidden, the film was an intimate portrait of the life and faith of an Old Order Amish family in America.  Miriam and David entrusted me with their story knowing they risked ex-communication and likely shunning from both their family and the community they loved.  

‘Robbie’s War: the Rise and Fall of a Playboy Billionaire’ was shortlisted for the Grierson Award for Most Entertaining Documentary (2018). The film was a revealing portrait of extreme wealth and took me into the home of one of the most litigious private individuals in the country.   

‘Millionaire’s Ex-Wives Club’ similarly was an insight into the lives of the rich. The Times newspaper commented: ‘Extreme wealth is always a slightly unsavoury topic but there is humanity at the core of Alleway's film… “Money can give you comfort, it can give you warmth, does it magically take away the pain? Absolutely not,” says Lisa Tchenguiz…’ 

High profile films have involved me grabbing my camera and gaining access to national news stories. I had access to the unfolding story of the iconic British psychotherapist Camila Batmanghelidjh for the BBC film ‘Inside Kids Company’.  The film observed the charity’s tragic collapse despite years of backing from successive prime ministers and celebrities.

Before that ‘The Conman, his Lover and the Prime Minister’s Wife’ took me into the heart of national scandal involving personal trainer Carole Caplin whose relationship with an international conman threatened her close friends: the former prime minister Tony Blair and wife Cherie. 

From inside London’s Holloway women’s prison where self-harm was tragically part of everyday life, to filming the Hutterites, a religious cult who live in isolated communities of 100 people in the middle of the Canadian Prairies, I’ve had a ringside seat to all these incredible worlds. And I’ve found inspiration in the most unlikely places: on an intensive care neonatal unit I discovered Amy, mother of baby Charlie McPhillips, who demonstrated wisdom far beyond her 18 years, and taught us all much about love, life and death. 

For all those who have the courage to share their lives with such candour and invite the cameras in, I have only thanks and admiration. 

Download my CV here