Home CONTACT
FILMMAKER PROFILE CINEMATOGRAPHY CORPORATE AND NON-PROFIT AWARDS AND HONORS TEACHING
Documentary Films
Born Sweet

Born Sweet    (2010 Sundance Film Festival – Honorable Mention)

Despite being only fifteen years old, Vinh Voeurn has accepted his destiny - to be sick for the rest of life with incurable arsenic poisoning. He longs to fall in love with a girl with long, smooth hair. He fantasizes about becoming a karaoke star, winning the affections of adoring fans. But his body is terribly 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.

Vinh spends his days in his remote Cambodian village tending the cows and escaping into song with his family's car battery powered karaoke machine. He worries he will never marry and live the life he wants for himself. A chance to be in a karaoke video about the dangers of arsenic allows Vinh to wonder if he truly knows his destiny.

Living the Legacy

Watch
Living the Legacy    (2009 Sundance Channel)

"Living the Legacy" follows three young students as they separate from their parents and enroll in Milton Hershey School, a residential school in Pennsylvania. The film follows the children during their first school year - a turbulent, dramatic and eye-opening experience for the students and their families.

"Living the Legacy" will air for two years on the Sundance/IFC Channels, beginning November 9th 2009 at 9:30 EST (check local listings).

View Stills and Details

Visit Freeheld.com
Freeheld  (2007 Sundance Film Festival – Special Jury Prize; 2008 Academy Award)

US Broadcast Premiere: Cinemax 2008

Website: www.freeheld.com

Winner:
  Academy Award®: Short Documentary
  Sundance Film Festival: Special Jury Prize in Short Filmmaking
  Seattle Film Festival: Special Jury Prize
  Boston Independent Film Festival: Audience Award
  NewFest NYC Film Festival: Best Short Documentary
  Outfest LA Film Festival: Audience Award
  Spokane GLBT Film Festival: John Deen Award
  Spokane GLBT Film Festival: Audience Award
  Denver Film Society: Social Justice Award
  Palm Springs Shortfest: Best Documentary
  Palm Springs Shortfest: Audience Award
  Connecticut G&L Film Festival: Audience Award
  Long Island GLBT Film Festival: Audience Award
  Zinegoak Film Festival: Best Documentary
  Reeling Film Festival: Audience Award
  IDA Award: Nomination Best Short Documentary

Lieutenant Laurel Hester is dying.

All she wants to do is leave her pension benefits to her life partner - Stacie, so Stacie can afford to keep their house. Laurel is told no; they are not husband and wife.

After spending a lifetime fighting for justice for other people, Laurel - a veteran New Jersey detective - 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.

Visit www.shelterdogs.org

Visit www.shelterdogs.org
Shelter Dogs    (2004 - HBO America Undercover)

HBO Premiere: January 2004

Website:
www.shelterdogs.org

A year in the life of a rural animal shelter, where staff members must make the difficult decisions of which animals will be saved for adoption and which will be euthanized.

Winner:
"Best of the Fest", Northampton Independent Film Festival 2003
Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary, Director's View Film Festival 2003
Audience Award, Newport Film Festival 2003.
Audience Award, Orinda Film Festival 2004
ALA Library Association Notable Film Award 2004

Review Highlights:

  "One of the Ten Best Documentaries of 2003" -- The Boston Phoenix

  "Engrossing" -- TV Guide

  "Unflinching" - The New York Times

  "Riveting ... a tight and artful work" - San Francisco Weekly

View Stills and Details

View Stills and Details
Grist for the Mill    (1999 - Cinemax Reel Life)

National Television Broadcast: June 1999

A personal documentary chronicling the effects of divorce on the filmmaker's family.

Winner: Best Documentary Short, Westchester Film Festival, 2000.

Review Highlights:

  "A delight ... full of quirky moments and clever humor ... editing is excellent"
  -- The Hollywood Reporter

  "A jewel ... extremely comical" -- Variety, 6/18/99

  "Gripping ... remarkable candor ... an intelligent convergence of fairytale,
  cinema and home movie" -- St. John's Int'l Women's Film Festival 2000

  "Funny in all the right ways" -- actress/comedienne Janeane Garofalo
View Stills and Details

View Stills and Details
Almost Home    (1996 - Fanlight Productions)

A twenty-five minute documentary depicting two homeless boys navigating their way through their schools, the Bronx streets and the shelter where they live, as it observes the challenges of single mothers raising sons.

Winner: 1996 Silver Apple Award (National Media Educational Network); Best Educational Video (Access Awards); Special Recognition (Main Street Festival; South Bronx Film Festival); Certificate of Merit (Movies on a Shoestring).

View Stills

Kismet    (1992)

An eight-minute documentary following a peep-show dancer through an evening at work.

Festival Highlights: 1992 Mill Valley Film Festival, 1992 California Film Arts Festival, 1996 New York Independent Film & Video Festival.

"Honest and enlightening ... a captivating peek into a fascinating persona"
  -- The Official Guide to the 1992 Mill Valley Film Festival

Dream Lovers    (1989)

Documentary contrasting the Smith College social life of 1939 and 1989. Smith Scholars Thesis.

©2007 Cynthia Wade Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.