Freeheld, a film by faculty member Cynthia Wade, has been nominated for an Academy Award in the Short Documentary category.

Freeheld chronicles Detective Lieutenant Laurel Hester’s struggle to transfer her pension to her domestic partner, Stacie Andree, after she was diagnosed with terminal cancer. A 25-year veteran of the police force of Ocean County, New Jersey, Hester spent the last year of her life battling for justice for the woman she loved.

Cynthia Wade teaches cinematography in the graduate Certificate program in Documentary Media studies at The New School. She directed and shot Shelter Dogs, an award-winning HBO documentary that was broadcast in seven countries, and directed and edited the award-winning 1999 Cinemax documentary Grist for the Mill. Wade was also coproducer and cinematographer of the 1998 PBS documentary Taken In: The Lives of America’s Foster Children, winner of the prestigious duPont Columbia Award for Excellence in Journalism. She has worked as director of photography for PBS, HBO/Cinemax, A&E, Discovery, The History Channel, MTV, AMC, Oxygen, and TNT. Wade has made dozens of films for corporate and nonprofit clients, including Intel, the National Guard, and the Job Corps.