Pia SAWHNEY is an award-winning producer, director, writer and reporter - and has collaborated on productions for PBS, the Los Angeles Times, Radio Free Europe and Voice of America. She completed a 3-year verité documentary project in 2006 on US Muslims detained and deported by American immigration authorities after 9/11. That 66-minute film titled, OUT OF STATUS, was nominated for the Amnesty DOEN Award for Human Rights during its premiere at the Rotterdam Film Festival. It subsequently aired on Channel 4 TV (UK), played at film festivals worldwide and on several European television stations. OUT OF STATUS was reviewed by The New York Times, TV Guide, and Variety and had a theatrical run in New York City in August 2007. Pia and her co-producer on that film, Sanjna Singh, were nominated for ABC’s Talent Development Award. They were awarded first prize for "Outstanding Broadcast of the Year" from the South Asian Journalists Association in 2006, and received grants from the New York State Council on the Arts and Experimental Television to fund their efforts. Pia has also worked extensively in multimedia communications and human rights, and holds a masters degree in broadcast journalism from New York University and an undergraduate degree from Bryn Mawr College. Her newest 42-minute documentary feature, RWANDA: TAKE TWO, commissioned by the Rotterdam Film Festival, premiered there in January 2010 and at the Gothenberg Film Festival in Sweden. She is currently enrolled in a graduate program in public policy at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. For work samples and more info, visit the Rotterdam Film Festival website and the Mediastorm.org site. For sales of OUT OF STATUS, contact WIDE MANAGEMENT (France). Pia has written for the Huffington Post since 2008. A profile and description of her new film on Rwanda is posted here. RWANDA: TAKE TWO can be watched in its entirety on the Washington Post website here.

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