Laura Waters Hinson is Filmmaker-in-Residence in the School of Communication at American University where she directs the Community Voice Project (CVP), which partners student filmmakers with DC-based organizations to produce short films that capture the voices of community residents too often unseen and unheard. Laura is also the founder of Image Bearer Pictures, an award-winning documentary production company in Washington, DC. Her first feature documentary, As We Forgive, about Rwanda’s reconciliation movement, won the 2008 student Academy Award for best documentary. She recently released Mama Rwanda, an award-winning short doc that explores how a new generation of women entrepreneurs in post-genocide Rwanda is helping to transform their nation into one of the top ten fastest growing economies in the world. In 2014, Laura released Dog Days, a feature documentary about the American Dream set within the underworld of street vending in DC, which won Best Documentary at the IndieCapitol Awards and premiered in 2016 on PBS WORLD Channel. Laura received an MFA in Film and Electronic Media from American University and a BA in Political Science and Communication from Furman University.