As part of Merion Mercy's celebration of Black History Month, on February 13 there will be a school-wide assembly to screen Black Ballerina, which was produced and directed by Emmy-award winning documentarian and MMA alumna Frances (Fran) McElroy ’64. A Q-and-A with Fran and four of our African American students who are ballerinas will follow the screening.
Fran is a talented documentarian and producer. She finds herself “especially drawn to subjects that relate to the arts, community development, and social change, often with an international perspective.” Both Fran’s personal and professional values are guided by a strong foundation in social justice. Her Mercy values come across from the minute you meet her—she is instantly warm, intelligent, and thoughtful. These attributes make her incredibly likeable, yet learning about her life and her career make her inspirational.
Fran’s lifelong love for the arts showed through from her time at Merion Mercy when she was awarded a piano scholarship. Fran additionally performed as a member of the school’s orchestra, playing the cello, and expressed her keen interest in various art forms in another facet: as a reporter for Ricordia. Fran says that the writing skills she gained from MMA have been very important in her career because she always has to write proposals and persuasions. Fran’s favorite subjects while at MMA were government and art—different disciplines, yet both allowed her to express her point of view and helped her as she began to consider her professional goals. Along with the academic side of Merion, Fran believes that the traditions here, such as the Harvest Moon Dance, the Father/Daughter breakfasts, and wearing white gloves to Mass, were the elements that make this school such a special place.
After MMA, Fran attended Rosemont College and studied history and political science during the aftermath of the Kennedy assassination. After college, Fran worked for ten years in Washington, D.C. as a member of Ted Kennedy’s staff. Fran says that the “Kennedys were inspirational people that made government work seem like a rightful duty”. Fran was living her Mercy education and explains, “Service comes in a lot of different forms and ways. This was an opportunity to do things right and make a difference in the world.”
Fran then moved on to work at WHYY Channel 12 in Philadelphia, where she had her first job in communications. There, Fran mostly learned on the job, conducting interviews and creating longer segments that would lead into her career as a documentarian, all the while keeping a focus that her work should be meaningful and make an impact on the world. She ultimately became the Director of Program Development and an Emmy award-winning producer/director at WHYY. Her credits include Philadelphia's Ed Bacon, a documentary about renowned city planner Edmund Bacon, and Who is Red Grooms?, a documentary about the beloved American artist.
Eager to follow her professional desire to become an independent film maker, in 1991 Fran moved into nonprofit film and she is the founder and Executive Director of Shirley Road Productions. Shirley Road Productions’ mission is to create educational and cultural programs that are innovative in content, point of view, and production, such as Ballycastle, a documentary she produced and directed. Ballycastle tells the story of Stuart Shils, a Philadelphia painter of Jewish heritage whose infatuation with a remote Irish village changed his life. The film won a 2004 CINE Golden Eagle Award.
Among her (practically) countless distinctions, Fran also received a 2009 Pew Fellowship in the Arts and a 2010 Transformation Award from the Leeway Foundation Transformation Award for the award-winning documentary Mirror Dance, both honors helped finance her 2011 film, Making Waves, which offers a look into the world of Philadelphia’s historic Boathouse Row. She says, “Making Waves would not have been possible without my two, terrific production assistants (Allison Wendling ’02 and Anna Temple-West ’11) from MMA.”
Fran’s work has been rewarding on many levels. She has been able to travel to many places, such as Ireland and Cuba, to film her documentaries and she says that the best part of her job is meeting the people in her documentaries. Fran has made documentaries for other nonprofits, such as Project HOME and Philabundance, two service sites where MMA students volunteer. The other subjects that Fran focusses on often relate to the arts, and her documentaries shed light on topics that are not discussed. This is how Fran seeks justice; she knows that the documentaries she makes raise discussions that can (and often do) then lead to action. Though she has received many awards for her work, Fran believes that the biggest achievement that she can receive for her effort is when her “documentaries are shown on public television and people can see them and hopefully take something away from the experience, thus achieving more perspective in the world”.
Another important aspect that Fran says she gained from her career is “all that she has learned from all of the people in her documentaries”. She maintains that one of the best ways to “Live Mercy and Seek Justice” is to respect all people. Fran hopes that the girls who attend MMA now can learn from her career and—no matter what career path they choose—to give back and to be grateful.
