Cynthia Wade, Director

Cynthia Wade is an Oscar®-winning, Emmy-nominated documentary director who often works in commercial and fiction. Her 2023 four-part Netflix docuseries “MerPeople,” about the dangerous, beautiful world of underwater performers, is rated 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. Her directing credits include the Emmy-nominated “The Flagmakers” (Disney+, Critics Choice Nominee, Oscar shortlist); “Mondays at Racine” (HBO, Oscar nominee); “Freeheld” (HBO, Oscar winner, Sundance winner); “Born Sweet” (Sundance winner, Oscar shortlist); “Shelter Dogs” (HBO); “Grist for the Mill” (Cinemax); Primetime Emmy winning “Growing Hope Against Hunger” (PBS), “Generation Startup” (Netflix); and “Living the Legacy” (Sundance Channel). Her fiction short “Sproutland” won 15 awards. She directed three episodes of Apple TV+’s docuseries “Gutsy,” featuring Hillary Clinton and Chelsea Clinton.

Cynthia holds a BA cum laude from Smith College and an MA in Documentary Filmmaking from Stanford University. She is a member of DGA and AMPAS. She is represented by William Morris Endeavor (WME).

Sasha Friedlander, Director

Sasha Friedlander directed, produced, shot, and edited the feature documentary Where Heaven Meets Hell. The film, set in East Java, Indonesia, won numerous prizes including Best Feature Documentary Film at the LA Asian Pacific Film Festival, Hawaii International Film Festival, and Special Mention for Outstanding Cinematography at the LAAPFF. At the One World International Human Rights Film Festival in Prague, the Václav Havel Jury gave a Special Mention Award to Where Heaven Meets Hell for its “exceptional contribution to the defense of human rights.” The Alliance of Women Film Journalists awarded Sasha an EDA Award for Documentary Artistry in March 2013. Recently, Sasha was an editor on the four-part Netflix docuseries “MerPeople,” about the dangerous, beautiful world of underwater performers, which is rated 100% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Sasha is fluent in Indonesian and worked as a journalist in East Java for several years.

Sasha holds a BA from UCLA and an MFA in Social Documentary Film from the School of Visual Arts.

CREDITS

Producers

Sasha Friedlander | Cynthia Wade

Tracie Holder | Matthew Syrett

Cinematographers 

Boaz Freund | Axel Baumann | Bao Nguyen

Editor

Sasha Friedlander

Additional Camera

Alex Ginting | Peter Mychalchewyz | Cynthia Wade

Sound Recordists

I Gede Sinu Pradnyana | Mark Haygen

Supervising Editors

Janus Billeskov Jansen | Fiona Otway

funders

Teach Green Foundation
John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
Fork Films
Chicken & Egg Pictures
Catapult Film Fund
Sundance Institute with support from Open Society Foundation
LEF Foundation
Our Children’s Earth Foundation
Jim and Susan Swartz
Women in Film Finishing Fund