as we forgive~RWANDAN MIRACLES

as we forgive, new gold academy ward winning student documentary film by Laura Waters Hinson, has captured on film the post genocide forgiveness, reconciliation and rebuilding of lives taking place in that country.  No less than miraculous, this film will leave you stunned and deeply changed, not only by the events taking place but by the artistic sensitivity and perfection of its maker, Laura Waters Hinson-who debuted as recently as last week with Windrider Film Festival during Park City, Utah’s Sundance Film Festival.

A documentary about Rosaria and Chantal—two Rwandan women coming face-to-face with the men who slaughtered their families during the 1994 genocide. Can they forgive the person that murdered their family?  The subjects of as we forgive speak for a nation still wracked by the grief of a genocide that killed one in eight Rwandans in 1994. Overwhelmed by an enormous backlog of court cases, the government has returned over 50,000 thousand genocide perpetrators back to the very communities they helped to destroy. Without the hope of full justice, Rwanda has turned to a new solution: Reconciliation.

But can it be done? Can survivors truly forgive the killers who destroyed their families? Can the government expect this from its people? And can the church, which failed at moral leadership during the genocide, fit into the process of reconciliation today? In as we forgive, director Laura Waters Hinson and narrator Mia Farrow explore these topics through the lives of four neighbors once caught in opposite tides of a genocidal bloodbath, and their extraordinary journey from death to life through forgiveness.

Many serendipitous events led to Hinson gaining the support of Mia Farrow, who compassionately narrates this work, as well as two Washington, D.C. musical composers to produce the soundtrack for this her first film.  No detail was left unattended.  Hinson is to be congratulated and well deserves the many honors her film has received:  Golden Winner Student Academy Awards Best Documentary, 2008 Angelous Student Film Festival Best Documentary, National Geographic All Roads Film Festival Audience Choice Award, Crystal Heart Award Heartland Film Festival, Official Selection Kansas International Film Festival, Official Selection Rocky Mountain Women’s Festival, Official Selection La Femme Film Festival, and Official Selection Seattle Human Rights Festival Amnesty International.