Nina Shapiro-Perl is an award-winning producer and director who currently holds the position of Filmmaker-in-Residence at American University, where she teaches and leads the Community Voice Project as Creative Director in the Center for Media and Social Impact. Before joining the faculty of American University, she worked for twenty years directing the Video Services Department and Greenhouse Cultural Program of the Service Employees International Union. Nina earned her doctorate from the University of Connecticut as a social anthropologist. Her first job outside academia was as a writer and producer at Maryland Public Television. Her multi-award-winning film, “Through the Eye of the Needle” documents the art and story of Holocaust survivor and artist Esther Nisenthal Krinitz ( artandremembrance.org ). Her latest film, “Landscape of Power: Freedom and Slavery in the Great Dismal Swamp” documents the major research findings of archeologist Daniel Sayers, that for first time establish occupation by maroon communities in the swamp for more than 200 years. The film carries to the public a story of agency, resistance and resilience among escaped slaves who chose heat, insects, and wild animals over plantation life.

Nina can reached at shapirop [at] american [dot] edu.