Will Thwaites

Filmmaker

Will Thwaites is a documentary filmmaker based in Brooklyn, New York. He’s worked on projects for Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, and PBS. Will was a producer on two acclaimed Netflix series: Full Swing and My Next Guest with David Letterman. He started his career at
Kartemquin Films (Oscar-nominated producers of Minding the Gap and Hoop Dreams), where he worked on the Emmy Award-winning film, The Homestretch. Will’s debut feature documentary, Crime & Parody, premiered at Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in 2026, won best documentary feature at the River Valley Film Festival, and is playing at film festivals across the country.

Participating Sessions

Rights from the Ground Up

The rights journalists exercise — to film in public, to request government records, to refuse to identify sources — belong to every citizen. But unlike professional journalists, whose rights are defended by the in-house counsel, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and a network of other press freedom organizations, ordinary citizens face the consequences of exercising those rights largely alone. As government conduct...