Documentary Film in the Public Interest Initiative

“Documentary at Risk” Recommendation: Engage with AI’s Structural Impacts. Read about ideas on drawing inspiration from recent labor organizing efforts, investing in media literacy, and pursuing policy interventions in our convening report: dfpi.shorensteincenter.org/convenings/d....

“Documentary at Risk” Recommendation: Budget for Safety, Redistribute Risk. Read ideas on planning for safety and security protocols, deploying digital protection tools, exploring protection tactics, and more in our convening report: dfpi.shorensteincenter.org/convenings/d...

“Documentary at Risk” Recommendation: Care for Participants. Read about ideas on relational consent models; participant advocacy; compensation ethics; preemptive legal tools; and more in our convening report: dfpi.shorensteincenter.org/convenings/d...

“Documentary at Risk” Recommendation: Rethink Discovery, Distribution, and Reach. Read about ideas on building new platforms and leveraging existing ones, looking to enduring models, and strategic framing in our convening report: dfpi.shorensteincenter.org/convenings/d....

Submissions - Henry Awards for Public Interest

For the 2026 Henry Awards, we will have an open call for submissions (Oct 20th — Nov 21st, 2025). Get ready to submit an application for your documentary feature, short , or series and read up on the latest updates to the awards criteria and eligibility here: henryawards.org/submissions/.

"Documentary at Risk" Recommendation: Fund the Future—Build Structural Support for Public-Interest Film. Read about ideas on public funding at every level, slate financing, lobbying power, grassroots funding, and taxing the tentpoles in our convening report dfpi.shorensteincenter.org/convenings/d...

Announcing the Fall 2025 Cohort of Documentary Film Fellows | Shorenstein Center The Shorenstein Center is proud to announce the Fall 2025 cohort of Documentary Film Fellows, who will be working closely with the Documentary Film in the Public Interest (DFPI) initiative. Through th...

This fall, Patricia Aufderheide and Jax Deluca join Shirley Abraham as Doc Film Fellows! Patricia will research how expressions of care for sources appear in U.S. journalistic ethics codes and Jax will propose a public media framework for current civic needs. More info here: tinyurl.com/2vk4n8fj

Documentary Ideas Symposium 2025 - DFPI

Just released: “Documentary at Risk: Strategies for Ethics, Sustainability, and Innovation in a Time of Disruption,” the convening report from our first Documentary Ideas Symposium that took place at Harvard Kennedy School in April 2025. Read: dfpi.shorensteincenter.org/convenings/doc-ideas-2025/

Independents, PBS, and the Fight for Free Speech | Shorenstein Center The current administration’s assault on public media, including the plan to claw back previously approved $1.1 billion to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, is part of a broader attack on basic ...

Ahead of the upcoming vote on public media funding cuts, read Fellow Bernardo Ruiz’s urgent Shorenstein Center Blog post on the place of independent documentaries within PBS’s mission and how the independent film sector’s history of advocating can provide lessons for today. tinyurl.com/48vb6e67

Have you had a chance to check out our new digital home? Visit dfpi.shorensteincenter.org to follow our work, including research from fellows, upcoming events, and the latest updates to our Documentary Distribution Literature Review.

Could Policy Be the Answer? Over the past several years, when discussing the audience exodus to large platform streamers, I’ve encountered exhaustion from filmmakers, arts workers, funders, broadcasters, distributors, and exhibi...

Following her time with us last Fall as a DFPI Fellow, Abby Sun has published an incisive Documentary Magazine article based on her public policy research at the @shorensteinctr.bsky.social - “Could Policy Be the Answer?”

www.documentary.org/feature/coul...

Our friends at the Center for Media & Social Impact have put out a call for documentary storytellers and nonfiction professionals to contribute to their 2025 State of the Documentary Field Study. To add your experience, take their survey: tinyurl.com/cmsisurvey

Inaugural Henry Awards for documentary film awarded by Harvard’s Shorenstein Center - The Boston Globe Director Vinay Shukla's “While We Watched" wins top honors at inaugural Henry Awards for Public Interest at Harvard's Shorenstein Center.

Reminiscing about our inaugural Henry Awards. Last month, distinguished filmmakers, executives, journalists, and researchers gathered at Harvard Kennedy School for our first Henry Awards celebration. Congrats to Grand Prize winner WHILE WE WATCHED, Finalists, and Semi-Finalists. tinyurl.com/mwk9xz8f