DOCUMENTARY FILM IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST
Inspiring a documentary film practice and infrastructure that can contribute to strong societies.
WE’RE BUILDING A STRONGER, MORE RESILIENT FIELD
The Documentary Film in the Public Interest (DFPI) program is administered by the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School. The initiative’s activities are designed to cross bridges between thinking and acting. We bring together practitioners, thought leaders, journalists, and filmmakers to drive new research, innovation, and provocation around issues in the documentary field.
Just Released!
Documentary Ideas Symposium 2025 Report
Read the convening report from the Documentary Film in the Public Interest initiative’s groundbreaking Documentary Ideas Symposium (April 2025). A distillation of the vital conversations that took place, Documentary at Risk: Strategies for Ethics, Sustainability, and Innovation in a Time of Disruption aims to capture the debates, ideas, and energy shared amongst attendees and translate them into a set of observations and recommendations that could benefit the field at large in this moment of radical shift.
THE HENRY AWARDS
The Henry Awards for Public Interest Documentary honor nonfiction films and series that advance public understanding of the critical issues of our time and reflect high standards of journalistic ethics and integrity.