Producer Sara Archambault Joins Harvard’s Shorenstein Center to Lead New Documentary for the Public Interest Initiative

EXCLUSIVE: Award-winning documentary maker and film programmer Sara Archambault joins the Shorenstein Center for Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. As newly appointed documentary project manager, Archambault will oversee a new public interest documentary initiative.

“The initiative will engage academics, filmmakers, journalists and industry leaders on key issues facing the documentary film industry today,” says a press release announcing Archambault’s appointment, “and includes activities such as fellowships, screenings, meetings and new awards. “

Archambault’s recent production credits include Riotville, USA And A decent houseboth from 2022 and the following Reichland. Previously, she was director of programs at the LEF Foundation in Cambridge, Massachusetts for 10 years and founder/programmer for Brattle Theatre’s The DocYard film series for nine years. In 2019, the Boston Society of Film Critics gave her a special award for her “outstanding contributions to the Boston film community.”

In addition to her other accomplishments, Archambault is a 2020 Impact Partners Producing Fellow, a 2013 Sundance Creative Producers Lab Fellow, and was named a 2020 SF DocFest Vanguard Awardee. She is an active member of the Documentary Producers Alliance and a board member of The Flaherty.

“Sara’s deep knowledge of the documentary world from many angles makes her the perfect person to help build the infrastructure for this new project at the Shorenstein Center,” says Center Director Nancy Gibbs, who conceived and initiated the project.

“We’ve seen such a huge change in the documentary industry in the last 10 years,” Archambault said in a statement. “From the huge increase in popularity of the form, to major changes in our documentary support organizations, even changes in how these films are funded, produced and viewed – all felt the change in real time, with limited space and limited.” With resources to collectively think, learn, and reflect on intentionally building pathways to the future, being in a place as rigorous and thoughtful as the Shorenstein Center feels like a perfect time to support this work .”

The Shorenstein Center was founded in 1986 to study the intersection of press and politics and to bring working journalists to the Kennedy School. The center “has expanded its mission over the past decade to study the challenges, threats and opportunities in the modern information ecosystem. With this strategic focus in mind, the Shorenstein Center is now expanding its work to examine questions facing documentary practice, the industry and its role in social life in this moment of growing engagement with form.

In addition to directing the Shorenstein Center, Nancy Gibbs is the Edward R. Murrow Professor of Practice of Press, Politics, and Public Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. She is the former editor-in-chief of Time Magazine.