Generation Startup Learning to fail. Redefining Success

Cynthia Wade, Director; Cheryl Houser, Director | 

Duration : 93 min.

Generation Startup takes us to the front lines of entrepreneurship in America, capturing the struggles and triumphs of six recent college graduates who put everything on the line to build startups in Detroit. Shot over 17 months, it's an honest, in-the-trenches look at what it takes to launch a startup. The film celebrates risk-taking, urban revitalization, and diversity while delivering a vital call-to-action-with entrepreneurship at a record low, the country's economic future is at stake.

Freeheld Based on the Oscar Winning Documentary

Peter Sollett, Director; Cynthia Wade, Producer | Lionsgate

Based on the Academy Award winning documentary by Cynthia Wade, FREEHELD tells the true story of Laurel Hester (Julianne Moore), a police officer in Ocean County, New Jersey. The story narrates the difficulties faced by a lesbian police detective and her domestic partner, Stacie Andree (Ellen Page). Following her diagnosis with terminal lung cancer in 2005, Hester repeatedly appealed to the county's board of chosen freeholders in an attempt to ensure her pension benefits could be passed on to her domestic partner

The Gnomist What do you believe?

Sharon Liese, Director; Cynthia Wade, Producer  | CNN

Duration : 18 min.

The Gnomist is a true story about the mysterious appearance of fairy homes in a suburban forest and the magical experience shared by three women.  The Gnomist aired as part of CNN's Great Big Story project.

Mondays at Racine Academy Award Nominee

A Film by Cynthia Wade | HBO

Duration : 39 min.

Every third Monday of the month, brassy Long Island, New York sisters Cynthia and Rachel open up their hair salon, called Racine, and offer free beauty services for women undergoing chemotherapy.  Determined to make their customers feel beautiful, the glamour duo knows that Mondays at Racine goes beyond purple painted toes or a frothy facial.  The sisters are determined to give women who are losing their hair, eyebrows and eyelashes a sense of normalcy and dignity in a traumatic and uncertain time. The story of what hair means in our culture quickly unfolds into an unexpected look at womanhood, marriage and survival.

Sesame Street Growing Hope Against Hunger

Documentary director Cynthia Wade | PBS

An excerpt from the Prime-Time Emmy Award winning Sesame Street special about hunger and broadcast nationwide on PBS.

Born Sweet

A Film by Cynthia Wade | 

Duration : 28 min.

15 year old Vinh lives in a remote Cambodian village and has accepted his destiny – to be sick for the rest of his life with incurable arsenic poisoning.  He dreams of becoming a karaoke star, winning the affections of adoring fans. But his body is scarred by illness and there is a good chance the arsenic will soon take his life, like the girl who once lived across the road. A chance to star in a karaoke video about the dangers of arsenic allows Vinh to wonder if he truly knows his destiny. 

Freeheld Academy Award Winner

A Film by Cynthia Wade | HBO

Duration : 39 min.

Lieutenant Laurel Hester is dying.

All Laurel wants to do is leave her pension benefits to her life partner - Stacie, so Stacie can afford to keep their house. She is told no; they are not husband and wife. After spending a lifetime fighting for justice for others, Laurel launches a final battle for justice. Knuckle-biting, dramatic Freeheld chronicles a dying policewoman's bitter fight to provide for the love of her life.

Shelter Dogs

A Film by Cynthia Wade | HBO

Duration : 72 min.

Animal sheltering pioneer Sue Sternberg and her staff face difficult decisions of which animals will be saved for adoption and which will be euthanized. The story hangs on the troubling moral dilemmas surrounding some of the "gray area" dogs. If a dog bites a shelter worker, is it ethical to adopt him out? If a dog guards his food, can he be trusted in a family with children? And what about the dogs that never find homes - is it more humane to sentence them to a lifetime in the shelter or to euthanize them? Filmed and edited over the course of three years, this award-winning film provides a fresh, provocative look at the complex, morally ambiguous world of animal sheltering.

Grist for the Mill

A Film by Cynthia Wade | Cinemax

Duration : 48 min.

Filmmaker Cynthia Wade is trying to get her divorced parents to talk to each other, but that is the last thing they want to do. Nothing ever seems to work out the way Wade hopes it will. At least she has a job -calling out Bingo numbers- a loving family -although her father's new wife is just a few years older than Wade, and a social life -if answering an emergency hotline on a Saturday night counts. So what if her sister gets all of the dates and her father is finally getting the son he always wanted? Wade is armed with her camera, and the result is a family story called “a jewel” - Variety - and “a delight, full of quirky moments and clever humor” -    -.