2025 Schedule

It's been a year. Get here early to say hello over coffee and a bite before heading to the sessions.  …

In recent months, the Trump Administration has eliminated long standing legal protections that shielded the notes and records of reporters in investigations of government leaks. Coupled with the dismantling of offices once charged with protecting whistleblowers from retaliation, the moves signal a wider climate of legal uncertainty for investigative filmmakers and reporters alike. This panel explores emerging risks—from leak investigations to defamation and surveillance—affecting anyone tackling…

As PBS redraws its role for nonfiction films and as major streaming platforms and traditional broadcasters narrow their slates for investigative documentaries, independent filmmakers face both daunting challenges and rare opportunities in getting their work to audiences. Navigating this unsettled territory—where public infrastructure is receding and corporate algorithms reign—has become a defining issue along today’s “New Fault Lines.” This session brings together leading voices from long-standi…

Break bread with old friends and new after the morning sessions. There's lots more to come.…

Governments have long used disinformation to destabilize publics, muddy accountability, and create atmospheres of deliberate confusion. Now, the rise of generative AI adds new layers to this fog, producing convincing falsehoods at astonishing speed and scale. In this session, investigative journalists and filmmakers probe the shifting terrain where truth itself can feel elusive and even unknowable. How do journalists and documentary filmmakers navigate and expose realities when narratives are co…

Dramatic steps to whitewash the American story in the name of “patriotic education” don’t simply reshape what we see on display at our national museums or read in textbooks—they rewrite who has a place in the American story. Black filmmakers committed to investigative, truth-driven work about Black heritage and experience, find themselves fighting not only for funding and access—but at times for the ability to tell stories that reflect an honest reckoning with racism, violence, and activism. The…

The writer Isaac Bashevis Singer once wrote that the greatest curse of the human spirit is its ability to get used to anything. As the public becomes desensitized to stories of violence, trauma, and injustice, investigative storytellers face the challenge of breaking through the static. How can investigative storytellers bring a fresh eye to urgent, trauma-filled stories that the public often struggles to look at directly? This panel will explore the creative, ethical, and emotional strategies t…