A while back, I spent two hours talking with filmmaker Cynthia Moses about her fascinating 40+ year career in journalism and documentary filmmaking. She served in the Peace Corps, worked at WNET in the mid-70s, and for ABC News and 60 Minutes, before producing wildlife documentaries for National Geographic, where she became interested in primates and spent years in Central Africa, making films and getting to know the communities near primate habitats.
Today, Cynthia splits her time between Washington, D.C. and Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, where she runs INCEF, a non-profit that educates through "video production and the subsequent dissemination and educator-led discussion of the videos." Cynthia and her team take complex conservation and public health issues, ranging from hunting primates and eating bushmeat to hand-washing and breastfeeding. Over the past ten years, they've reached over a million people, and Cynthia is building an organization that can continue INCEF's work for decades to come.
Filmmaker Cynthia Moses grew up in Central Massachusetts, where she thought life would bring a husband, kids, and a white picket fence. Then, she joined the Peace Corps in the early 1970s and left that life behind. After stints at ABC and 60 Minutes, Cynthia took a job with National Geographic’s wildlife documentary unit, and became fascinated with chimpanzees, gorillas. Several years filming in their native habitats in Central Africa led Cynthia to start INCEF, which makes films by and for local people to communicate ideas at the intersections of education, public health, and conservation. Cynthia and her team have reached over a million people over the past ten years, and today, Cynthia is focused on creating foundations for INCEF’s work to continue long into the future.
