Cynthia Abbott

Cynthia is an Emmy award winner of short form environmental films who believes the power of storytelling can change our collective vision of the ocean and create a new vision for the ocean’s future – protected and thriving. As founder of Every Second Breath Project, she has co-produced |directed five shorts which have won numerous awards and viewed at conferences and festivals worldwide. Emmy winning, THREE OCEAN ADVOCATES: INSPIRING CHANGE has aired on PBS in 2021/2022 and her short, DICK OGG: FISHERMAN won Audience Choice Best Short Doc at the Rincon International Film Festival and Short Award at the International Ocean Film Festival. Other festival screenings include Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, Sedona International Film Festival, DC Environmental Film Festival, Sebastopol Documentary Film Fest among others.

An experienced cinematographer, editor, and producer who has filmed in Burma and Thailand, Cynthia has spent her adult life living near the ocean in California and Hawaii and has seen first-hand the urgency of creating films as a call to action for understanding the enormity of our ocean’s environmental crisis.

Prior to focusing on independent filmmaking, she was an avid supporter of community public access TV where she produced six shorts on local environmental issues. Three of her shorts were awarded Best Education Profile from the National Alliance for Community Media and W.A.V.E. Awards. She continues to support public access TV as an active Board Member at the Community Media Center of Marin for six years.

Her current project, OCEAN SOUNDSCAPE focuses on increasing noise pollution in the ocean and the harmful and often deadly threats to marine life.