He is best known for his role as the Director of Operations at the Woodstock Festival,[1] his work on the Qatsi Trilogy, and for directing and producing the Emmy-nominated documentary Paha Sapa: The Struggle for the Black Hills.

Lawrence attended Lafayette High School and worked at Coney Island on the beach and at Ebbets Field, where he sold ice cream and soda and watched the Dodgers.

In 1954, at age 18, he was drafted into the Army and served 2 years in the 82nd Airborne, after which he attended Long Island University on the GI Bill, graduating with a BS in speech pathology.

Lawrence also executive produced Soul in the Hole (1997), a documentary about Brooklyn street basketball that was released theatrically and won the Independent Spirit: Truer Than Fiction Award.

Lawrence's best-known film is Paha Sapa: The Struggle for the Black Hills (1993), a documentary made for HBO that chronicles the 125-year land-claims conflict between the Lakota Sioux Nation and the U.S. government by combining on-location footage, archival photos and first-person accounts.