Pia is an award-winning independent producer and director, and has collaborated on productions for PBS/Frontline, PBS/American Experience, HBO and MTV Networks. Her multimedia and audio projects have been published to the Los Angeles Times, aired on Radio Free Europe and Voice of America, and heard locally in Somalia and Afghanistan.

Pia completed a feature-length independent documentary in 2006 that dealt with Muslim immigrants selectively detained and deported by US immigration authorities after 9/11. The 66-minute version of the film, OUT OF STATUS, was nominated for Amnesty’s DOEN Award for Human Rights during the film’s premiere in Rotterdam. Through 2006 OUT OF STATUS screened in festivals worldwide, and was broadcast in Europe, airing first on Channel 4 Television in the UK and then on the History Channel in Spain. The film was reviewed by The New York Times, TV Guide, Variety, and New York Post and had a theatrical run in New York’s Lower East Side in August 2007. Pia and her co-producer, Sanjna Singh, have been nominated for ABC’s Talent Development Award and were awarded grants from New York State Council on the Arts and Experimental Television to partially fund their efforts.

Pia has also created short films for the web and worked as a producer for Human Rights Watch. Most recently, she completed a series of essays on the 2008 election, many of which were published to the "Off The Bus" section of this site. Pia's blog is posted at http://www.thevotingmachines.blogspot.com/. To learn more about her documentary OUT OF STATUS visit the film's website or contact WIDE Management (Paris) for sales info.

Blog Entries by Pia Sawhney

Between Gupta and Daschle, Who Will Fix Health Care?

Posted January 7, 2009 | 04:45 PM (EST)


In his latest blog post, economist Paul Krugman has questioned the President-elect's choice for Surgeon-General, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, chief medical correspondent at CNN who anchors a range of medical affairs and documentary programming for the cable network.

Krugman brings the weight of his influence to bear on the...

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What Ms. Roosevelt Might Have Said About Gay Rights

9 Comments | Posted December 12, 2008 | 01:15 PM (EST)


60 years this week, the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Gay activists suggested marking the occasion by boycotting businesses, refraining from work and attending protests to demonstrate against Proposition 8, a measure to ban gay marriage in California State that regrettably...

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Princeton Class Hopeful for Congo

Posted November 24, 2008 | 05:21 PM (EST)


PRINCETON, N.J. -- At another moment, Jane Lewis might have looked to her classmates like yet another peeved aid worker.

But when she began her presentation on war-torn Congo at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson school last week, her peers were listening. They were, after all, a part of the under-30,...

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Campaign Journal: Celebrating In One Swing City

Posted October 28, 2008 | 04:25 PM (EST)


Photo: Baby pumpkins in the windowsill of a Bethlehem home.


On the eve of Diwali, known less formally as the Hindu New...

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Despite Money Advantage, Florida May Still Be Too Close for Comfort

Posted October 22, 2008 | 11:49 AM (EST)


In a startlingly narrow race to the presidency where one candidate has outspent the other two-to-one but is pulling past nationally by just a few points, rather than fearing the "Bradley effect" as analysts have done by fixating on the leading candidate's race, it may be time to keep tabs...

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In Georgia, Expect Record Numbers of Black Voters and Serious Tally Troubles

72 Comments | Posted October 16, 2008 | 04:46 PM (EST)


Half the voters who cast ballots in the Democratic primary in Georgia this past February were African-American (the state went to Obama). Despite long lines, incidents in which machines broke down and polls closed unexpectedly (rather than staying open late), black voters managed to show in record numbers.

Voting...

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What Happened to Ohio? (And Will It Happen Again?)

Posted October 14, 2008 | 10:44 AM (EST)


The grand questions, “Who’s dumb and who’s smart, attractive and eats fresh arugula salad” has become catnip on political blogs and in cable news shows. It's raised ubiquitously – you almost can’t read a word of media drivel without seeing it sometimes, the euphemisms directed at working class votes somewhere...

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