DOCUMENTARY FILM IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST

Advancing research and innovation at the intersection of documentary, nonfiction media, and a rapidly evolving information environment.

Three woman on stage seated in chairs with microphones

DOCUMENTARY AND VISUAL STORYTELLING

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 the future of visual storytelling.

Learn More

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. 

Check out the Report

GET OUR NEWSLETTER