Biography

Nina Shapiro-Perl, Board of Directors

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. Before joining the faculty of American University, she worked for twenty years building and 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 first independent film, Through the Eye of the Needle - The Art of Esther Nisenthal Krinitz, documents the art and story of Holocaust survivor and artist Esther Nisenthal Krinitz. It premiered in December 2011 at the Washington Jewish Film Festival where it won the Audience Favorite Documentary award. It also won the Audience Choice Best Short award at the San Diego Jewish Film Festival, and is now screening at other international festivals.