Real Life Cinema began in the summer of 2019 when Wade Shepard became painfully aware that he had accumulated too much gear to continue living as an itinerant filmmaker. So after 20 years of perpetual travel that took him to nearly 100 countries, he decided to set up shop in New York City and moved into a modest studio in the Astoria Arts District. Since then, he assembled a small team of camera operators and editors, partnered with top film companies and clients, and have told dozens of stories from around the world that range from the ethnic Portuguese of Malaysia struggling for survival against a failed Chinese development project to the embattled Syrian hip hop artist Assasi as he escaped his war-torn home and attempted to resurrect his career in rural Maine to the paradox of off-shore wind development.