Biographical information on filmmaker Cynthia A. McKeown

After graduating from Cornell University with a bachelor's degree in Government, Cynthia McKeown worked as a community and labor organizer and became increasingly interested in film as a means of exploring and communicating important social issues. She enrolled in film school at Boston University and graduated with an MFA in 1995.

Cynthia's first short documentary, Glory Days, tells the story of a racially divisive strike in a meat packing plant in South Boston in 1954. In the Beginning, a short narrative film that is a retelling of the Adam and Eve story from a feminist perspective, was screened at numerous festivals and venues throughout the United States and Canada.

Cynthia was the producer for Voices of Love and Freedom, an educational program that uses multicultural children's stories to teach literacy and ethics to children attending the Boston public schools. She produced professional development videos for teachers to support implementation of this program.

In 1999 Cynthia joined the Educational Programming Department of WGBH Television in Boston. During the next four years she produced over twenty programs through two major series on subjects ranging from early literacy development, Teaching Reading K-2: A Library of Classroom Practices, to innovative pedagogical approaches to sciences and mathematics instruction, Teachers As Learners: Professional Development in Science and Mathematics.

For the last nine years, Cynthia has also been following the life of Janice Fine, the subject of her documentary, One in Eight: Janice's Journey, from her initial diagnosis with breast cancer, through her treatment, recovery and subsequent milestones in her life. This is her first feature documentary.