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Meet Brooklyn’s golden girl: Park Slope filmmaker takes home Oscar

By Lesley Grimm

s filmmaker Cynthia Wade walked toward the Kodak Theatre stage on Sunday night, she looked both delighted and overwhelmed. Her mouth seemed to be frozen wide open, somewhere between a smile and a gasp. Then in front of every Hollywood A-lister imaginable and millions of viewers around the world, Cynthia Wade embraced Tom Hanks as he planted one gleaming Oscar into her shaking hands. It was a surreal moment—one of the world’s biggest movie stars presenting the industry’s greatest honor, an Academy Award. But for Cynthia Wade, who lives and works in Park Slope, this was no dream. A world away her humble 8th Avenue office, the filmmaker stood clutching her very own iconic gold statue. Convulsing with emotion and nerves, Wade tried to take in her strange yet blissful new reality. “It became very real and exciting and terrifying all at once,” said Wade, reliving her Oscar moment from her home in Brooklyn, just hours after returning on a red eye flight from California. “As I was ascending the steps to the stage Tom Hanks said to me ‘Come on up kiddo. It’s your moment,’ in a way that was so filmic and other-worldly,” Wade recalled. Wade, along with producer Vanessa Roth, won the Oscar for best short subject documentary for their 38-minute film Freeheld. The movie tells the story of New Jersey cop Laurel Hester and her fight for the woman she loves. Hester is dying of cancer and wants to leave her pension to her domestic partner Stacie Andree. This would be an option for any heterosexual married couple. But Laurel’s elected officials, the Ocean County Freeholders, reject her request. Gravely ill and with just weeks to live, Hester’s battle intensifies. Her story provokes a media storm and a desperate and impassioned civil rights campaign ensues. In the film this public and political drama is juxtaposed with a tender personal story. The movie cuts from heated community meetings and demonstrations to scenes of Laurel and Stacie at home as they prepare to say goodbye. While the film is set in New Jersey, Freeheld is in many ways a product of Brooklyn. “This film was completely and utterly made in Brooklyn, every last stitch,” said Wade, who lives in Park Slope with her husband and Freeheld Producer Matthew Syrett. Fellow producer Vanessa Roth also lives in Park Slope, as does Freeheld editor David Teague. Associate Producer Robin Honan resides in Fort Greene and composer Rob Schwimmer hails from Prospect Heights. Cynthia Wade met Laurel Hester and Stacie Andree just ten weeks before Laurel’s death in February of 2006. The filmmaker first read about their plight through a newspaper article and approached them and pitched the film after a meeting of the Freeholders. Laurel, in particular, was enthusiastic about her story reaching the widest audience possible and so the couple opened up their home and their lives to the filmmaker. Wade even lived with the New Jersey pair, on and off, as she filmed the last weeks of Laurel’s life. Wade acknowledged Laurel Hester in her Oscar acceptance speech on Sunday. “It was Lieutenant Laurel Hester's dying wish that her fight against discrimination would make a difference for all the same sex couples across the country that face discrimination every day—discrimination that I don't face as a married woman.” Laurel’s partner Stacie Andree was in the Kodak Theatre audience, holding a locket with some of Laurel’s ashes so that her late partner could be present. Freeheld debuted at last year’s Sundance Film Festival and has since shown at many festivals. However, a recent deal with the Cinemax cable channel will likely give the movie its largest exposure to date. Cinemax plans to broadcast Freeheld beginning in June. The film will also be released later this year on DVD. For more information, visit www.freeheld.com.