We greatly need your help in nominating AWF for American Express’ “Members Project.”  If enough people nominate, we could win an amazing grant to take As We Forgive on a worldwide tour to promote reconciliation.  When you read the online description, you’ll notice that we couldn’t use the name of the film in our official project (no product names allowed), but please follow the link below to NOMINATE and WRITE COMMENTS on “Lessons from Rwanda: A Forgiveness Film’s Outreach.” Thank you so much for helping us!

http://www.membersproject.com/project/view/LPAUKO

Filmmaker Laura Waters Hinson was the guest on NPR’s Diane Rehm Show on Thursday, August 7. Each week, over 1.7 million listeners tune into Diane’s 25-year running show, so we were incredibly excited to know that people all over the world got to hear about As We Forgive! Laura was joined for part of the interview by Philip Gourevitch, author of the award-winning book on the Rwandan genocide, We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families.

Listen online to the entire interview: http://wamu.org/programs/dr/08/08/07.php#21837

As We Forgive Wins the Gold at Student Academy Awards!!!

June 16–Beverly Hills, CA

I’m incredibly excited to announce that As We Forgive won the GOLD prize at the Student Academy Awards on June 7th in Hollywood! When I first found out that AWF had been nominated, I honestly didn’t have a clue about what was in store when we arrived to Los Angeles for the week of festivities planned by the Academy. I was truly stunned by the generosity of spirit and encouragement from so many of the Academy members who took such a genuine interest in all the winners’ films. We met one-on-one with numerous esteemed directors, producers and cinematographers—people who are typically nearly impossible to meet with! The greatest moment came when I was approached at a dinner at the Beverly Hills Hotel by Caleb Deschanel, one of the greatest cinematographers in Hollywood (5-time Oscar nominee, photographed the National Treasure, The Patriot, The Passion of the Christ, etc.). He told me that he loved As We Forgive and that he was incredibly moved by the story of reconciliation in Rwanda. To realize that so many members of the Academy had WATCHED and judged our films was absolutely incredible!

The night of the awards ceremony was equally amazing, as Caleb Deschanel was also the presenter of the documentary award and told the crowd of about 1,000 people that he could “barely speak about the story of As We Forgive without getting emotional.” I about fainted. Jason Reitman, director of the Academy Award-nominated Juno was also a presenter at the ceremony (in the narrative category), which was very exciting for us all. Overall, all the winners were profoundly affected by how well we were treated and how encouraged we were by the hospitality of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

As a result of the award, AWF is now getting a bit of press, with articles in a number of newspapers across the US. I was even told that Entertainment Tonight covered the awards ceremony, although I didn’t see it! To view photos of the event, visit the Academy website at:

www.oscars.org/saa/2008/index.html

CNN’s Christiane Amanpour Covers Rwanda’s Reconciliation

Read the story and watch the video–CNN’s chief foreign correspondent interviews a Rwandan genocide survivor about her decision to forgive the people who killed her family during the 1994 genocide. Amanpour also interviews President Paul Kagame about his decision to lead Rwanda toward a reconciliation movement. Reconciliation is making headlines!!

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/05/15/amanpour.rwanda/index.html