Cynthia Wade won the Academy Award in 2008 for her short documentary Freeheld, about a dying policewoman’s fight to leave her pension to her female life partner. Wade is now producing the Hollywood adaptation of this story, which stars Julianne Moore and Ellen Page. In 2013 Wade received her second Oscar nomination for her HBO documentary Mondays at Racine, about a hair salon that caters to women undergoing chemotherapy. Her Clio-winning 2014 short film Selfie (shot at Monument Mountain High School in Great Barrington), about girls’ body image and social media, went viral, capturing five million views within the first ten days of its internet launch and earned Wade and her subjects a slot on the Today Show. Wade’s work has been seen on HBO, Cinemax, PBS, MTV, Discovery, History Channel, A&E, Oxygen and LOGO; she has won more than 45 film awards worldwide.  http://cynthiawade.com/ 

Wade will serve as a panelist at WAM’s upcoming Theatre’s benefit, CHANGE MAKERS. Here is how she creates change…

What got you interested in working with WAM?

In many ways, my professional work mission is aligned with the mission of WAM Theatre. I have spent most of my life telling stories that are untold. Many of those stories have been stories of women and girls. I have also spent most of my career employing women. As a storyteller crafting stories about women, for women and with women, I share many of the same values and vision with WAM.

Can you talk about a time when you experienced or participated in positive change being made through the arts?

Yes, I can give you two specific examples. The first took place in the fall of 2005 when I was living in a four-floor walk up in Brooklyn with a daughter who had just turned five and a four-month-old daughter at home. I read a story about a New Jersey policewoman who was fighting Stage 4 lung cancer and was being denied the right to leave her police pension to her female life partner. I was drowning in early motherhood at this point, and I wasn’t sure I could embark on another large film at the time, but I couldn’t get this policewoman out of my head. So I went down to New Jersey and filmed a scene of protesters who were rallying around this policewoman. I knew then that I was going to follow this story, tell it from the inside, that I would leave my kids with my husband and figure out how to live in the policewoman’s house. And that’s what I did, ended up living with her for the last 10 weeks of her life, and created the documentary Freeheld. A year later, the film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. In 2008, the film won an Oscar. That night, “freeheld” became the number one Googled term on the planet.

Nine years later, it’s a become a motion picture starring Julianne Moore and Ellen Page, with script by Oscar nominated screenwriter Ron Nyswaner. This adapted screenplay allows us to tell the story of marriage inequality to an even wider audience. So, at a time when I felt like the minutia of life was threatening to drown me, a story grabbed me and shook me, and I followed it, and it created change.

Another example, more recently and locally, is my short film Selfie. The Sundance Institute and Dove recently created an initiative to more comprehensively support women film directors. As a way to kick off their partnership, they reached out to 60 women directors who had previously had a film at the Sundance Film Festival, and asked us to pitch an idea for a film that shows how social media is changing the way we define beauty. A producing partner of mine, Sharon Liese, and I pitched Selfie, a story where teen girls would take unfiltered selfies and present them to their community. Sharon and I won the grant. We had about a month to put together the whole film. We quickly got together a film crew and approached Monument Mountain High School. We were granted access by the most amazing principal, Marianne Young, and we created a pop up photography exhibit on Railroad Street in Great Barrington where many townspeople showed up. The whole experience was like pulling a rabbit out of a hat.

The film was shown during the 2014 Sundance Film Festival at the “Women in Film” brunch to about 400 women. Then it was launched on the Internet and was viewed about 5 million times within the first ten days of launch. Some of the girls, their moms and I were asked to speak about the experience on the TODAY SHOW. The following month, I went back on the TODAY SHOW and worked with women over 40 – women who feel ‘invisible’ in our youth-obsessed culture – and explored that issue. The TODAY SHOW ended up doing a month of Selfie-related reporting. This whole movement stemmed from a community — our community — being open to storytelling. So, Freeheld and Selfie show that the smallest movements can sometimes lead to the biggest impacts.

What are you most looking forward to at WAM’s fifth season celebration Change Makers?

Being home. I have been on the road so much this year. In the past four months, I have worked in Bangkok, did two round trips to Indonesia, worked in NYC, Los Angeles, Washington DC, Atlanta, Providence, Cincinnati, and Detroit. My family and friends and neighbors will be in the audience, that’s what I am most looking forward to, being home.

Do you have a favorite quote–from a song, movie, book, poem, TV show, etc.–that seems relevant to the subject of activism and art creating social change?

“You make your path by walking.” It’s really true. All I can do is keep moving.

What fictional, historical, or current public figure inspires you to take action and create positive change?

When I need centering, I get on my bike. I bike down to the Ashley House (in Ashley Falls, MA) where Elizabeth Freeman, or “Mum Bett”, a local slave, overheard men talking about the new Massachusetts constitution, which included the statement “all are born free and equal”. Hearing this, Mum Bett decided to sue for her freedom. She became one of the first slaves to be freed, and the Ashley House and the grounds where she lived in and worked still hold her character… I often go there to think. It feels like one of the most hallowed and profound spiritual spaces of the Berkshires.

What advice would you give to women who are just starting to establish themselves in their artistic careers and looking to create positive change?

Put one foot in front of the other. Ignore the naysayers, and be really highly aware of any shaming tactics or verbiage that people try to use. I often find that there is inherit shaming language used for women change makers, so be hyper vigilant of that. Ignore the haters and move away from that as quickly as you can. The journey, that messiness and difficulties — that is the destination. With all its struggles and imperfections, the doing is really the most beautiful thing.

Reserve your place now for WAM Theatre’s CHANGE MAKERS benefit on Sunday, August 24th at 7:00 pm.