Rory O’Connor is a documentary filmmaker and journalist. He is also president and co-founder of the international media firm Globalvision, Inc, and The Global Center, an affiliated non-profit educational foundation. He has directed, written and/or produced numerous films and television programs, and served as an executive in charge of three weekly television series, South Africa Now, and Rights & Wrongs: Human Rights Television (PBS), and Children First (ABC). His broadcast and film work has been honored with a George Polk Award, a Writer’s Guild Award, two Emmys, an Iris, a Cine Gold Eagle, and many other awards. O’Connor’s most recent films examine the effects of globalization and of poverty around the world, economic reforms and human rights in China, and the origins of ethnic cleansing in Yugoslavia. He also oversees two Internet sites, the not-for-profit MediaChannel.org, and the Globalvision News Network, an international wire service distributing thousands of articles daily from hundreds of professional news organizations around the world.

O’Connor began working in broadcast journalism as a reporter and producer at WGBH-TV, the PBS flagship in Boston. He subsequently was a senior producer at the ABC affiliate WCVB-TV Boston, where he produced documentaries and played a key role in the formation of “The Investigators,” the station’s first investigative news team. He later was program producer of the nightly “Ten O’clock News” at WGBH, and news director of the “Neighborhood Network News,” a nightly cable news program. His political commentary was featured regularly on WBCN-FM, one of New England’s leading radio stations. He later produced segments for the nightly PBS program “The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour,” and the weekly CBS News series “48 Hours.”

Prior to his career in broadcasting, O’Connor was a print journalist for more than a decade, writing and editing for such newspapers and magazines as the Boston Globe, the Phoenix, Boston Magazine, and The Real Paper, where he served in a variety of senior editorial positions, including that of managing editor. His articles have appeared in many leading national periodicals, including The Atlantic, Vogue, Rolling Stone, Mother Jones, The Nation, Newsweek, Details, Musician, Parents, and many others. He is the co-author of an award-winning non-fiction book entitled Nukespeak: The Selling of Nuclear Technology in America (Sierra Club, 1981; Penguin, 1982.)

A graduate of Boston College, O’Connor has taught and lectured at a number of universities, including Harvard, MIT, and Columbia, and was most recently an External Fellow of The Walt Whitman Center for the Culture and Politics of Democracy at Rutgers University. He is the father of two sons, Ciaran, age 13, and Aidan, age 10.

Filmography

• 2003: Co-Director, Co-Producer, Writer,
  “The Hole in the Wall,” Independent Documentary
• 2001: Co-Director, Co-Producer, Writer,
  “Voices of the Poor,” Independent Documentary
• 2000: Executive-in-Charge-of-Production,
  “Hear Our Voices: The Poor on Poverty,” Global Links TV Documentary
• 2000: Executive Producer,
  “Falun Gong’s Challenge to China,” Independent Documentary
• 1999: Director, Writer,
  “Richard Speck: Born To Raise Hell,” Court TV Documentary
• 1999: Story Developer,
  “The Trial of the Chicago 8,” Court TV Documentary
• 1999: Executive Producer, Writer,
  “Globalization and Human Rights,” PBS Documentary
• 1998: Director, Producer, Writer,
  “China: Change and Challenge,” Global Links TV Documentary
• 1996: Producer,
  “Yellow Wasps: Anatomy Of a War Crime,” Independent Documentary
• 1994: Executive Producer, Writer,
  “Countdown to Freedom,” Independent Documentary
• 1993: Director, Producer, Writer,
  “The Arming of Saudi Arabia,” PBS Frontline Documentary
• 1992: Director, Producer, Writer,
  “BCCI: The Bank of Crooks and Criminals,” PBS Frontline Documentary
• 1992: Director, Producer, Writer,
  “The Resurrection of Reverend Moon,” PBS Frontline Documentary
• 1992: Executive Producer,
  “Beyond JFK: The Question of Conspiracy,” Warner Bros. Documentary
• 1990: Executive Producer,
  “Nelson Mandela: Free At Last,” PBS Documentary
• 1990: Producer,Writer,
  “No Place Like Home,” WCVB-TV Documentary
• 1986: Producer, Writer
  “Mafia On Trial,” WCVB-TV Documentary
• 1985: Writer, Producer,
  “No Safe Asylum,” WCVB-TV Documentary