Superpowers: Tenacity and a knack for joy
Documentary Filmmaker
Susan Shumaker’s first productions weren’t for PBS. They were one-woman puppet shows staged behind a cardboard theater for her family on the small farm outside Morgantown where she grew up. Looking back, she likes to think those performances were her first documentaries.
Long before she started working in film, she had already discovered something that would shape the rest of her life: stories have the power to make people see the world differently.
That belief has carried her from West Virginia to some of the nation’s most respected institutions. Today, Shumaker is an artist-in-residence at Harvard University working on a project exploring the connections between spirituality, environmental stewardship, and social justice. Along the way, she’s produced acclaimed documentaries for PBS and other national audiences on subjects ranging from the nation’s national parks and the American buffalo to the Dust Bowl and Henry David Thoreau.
“I remain convinced that good filmmaking is the best way to move people’s hearts and, by doing so, to effect real change in the world,” she says.
Despite a career that has taken her across the country, Morgantown and the family farm where her storytelling blossomed are still home. She credits her parents with teaching her the importance of service, commitment, and family—lessons she still carries into every project.
Looking ahead, she hopes to invest in the next generation of storytellers, particularly in the Mountain State. “We are blessed with a strong storytelling tradition in our home state, and I hope in some way to be a catalyst for those stories getting out to the wider world,” she says.
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Since 2014 WV Living magazine has been honoring West Virginia Wonder Women, amazing women who are raising the bar in their communities, serving as beacons of light in their industries, and forcing change for the greater good. WV Living is proud to celebrate these Appalachian mothers, millennials, and mavens proving that in a time full of uncertainty, divisiveness, and hate, love for one another is all we really need. No need for bulletproof bracelets or a golden lasso of truth—these women are creating a better West Virginia with their can-do attitudes and Mountain State spirit.
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