Laura Stewart is a filmmaker residing in Chicago. Preferring to work with non-actors, Stewart’s films are interested in places with an aura of the past influencing the present. Another focus is the economics of female sexuality and how it affects opportunity, or lack thereof, in small town America. Working within the realm of coexistence between cinéma vérité and fictive elements, Stewart’s work frequently focuses on the Midwest.
Stewart's feature film debut, Shooter and Whitley (2013), has screened at RIDM Montreal, Antimatter, New Orleans Film Festival, Athens International Film Festival, Wisconsin Film Festival, Chicago Filmmakers, the Motorcycle Film Festival (Best Narrative Feature Award), the Nightingale Cinema, and the Gene Siskel Film Center. Her previous short films have screened at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art. Stewart received funding for Drifting Towards the Crescent from the Chicago Digital Media Production Fund in 2014. Laura received her MFA in 2013 from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and was the recipient of the William French Fellowship for outstanding MFA thesis.