About Us
The Documentary Accountability Working Group considers values, guiding principles and ethics that inform the practices of filmmakers, and shape their relationship to the story, the participants, the audience, funders and other stakeholders.
The working group grew organically out of a common series of questions around the future of documentary filmmaking, and the exponential growth of the documentary film industry. As the industry and the world navigate social constructs that could mitigate the documentary ecosystem, do filmmakers need a foundational set of best practices? Would industry-wide agreement on best practices help non-fiction storytellers work in ways they and their peers understand as responsible and ethical?
Our working group has elected to lead a discovery process, in order to source guiding principles that can support equitable and just filmmaking. An essential pillar of this work is to conduct open dialogues with filmmakers, funders, festivals and foundations who make up the documentary film system.
We launched public dialogue at the International Documentary Association Getting Real conference in October 2020. Since then, we have refined a set of guiding principles you can learn about by clicking the OUR VALUES tab above. You can also visit the RESOURCES and WATCH section of this website for more information about our ongoing work, related resources. and recordings from panels, discussions, and workshops we’ve held so far.
Who We Are
Patricia Aufderheide
American University
Patricia Aufderheide is University Professor of Communication Studies in the School of Communication at American University in Washington, D.C. She founded the School's Center for Media & Social Impact, where she continues as Senior Research Fellow. Her books include Reclaiming Fair Use: How to Put Balance Back in Copyright (University of Chicago), with Peter Jaszi; Documentary: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford), The Daily Planet (University of Minnesota Press), and Communications Policy in the Public Interest (Guilford Press). She has been a Fulbright Research Fellow twice, in Brazil (1994-5) and Australia (2017). She is also a John Simon Guggenheim fellow (1994) and has served as a juror at the Sundance Film Festival among others. Aufderheide has received numerous journalism and scholarly awards, including the George Stoney award for service to documentary from the University Film and Video Association in 2015, the International Communication Association's 2010 for Communication Research as an Agent of Change Award, Woman of Vision award from Women in Film and Video (DC) in 2010, a career achievement award in 2008 from the International Digital Media and Arts Association and the Scholarship and Preservation Award in 2006 from the International Documentary Association.
Natalie Bullock Brown
Director of DAWG
Natalie Bullock Brown is the proud director of the Documentary Accountability Working Group, a collective she helped to found in 2020, which released a values-informed framework for documentary filmmakers that emphasizes care, consent, and collaboration as a pathway to ethical storytelling. She is also documentary film producer; a 2023 Harvard Kennedy School Shorenstein Center Documentary Film Fellow; a 2023 DOC NYC New Leader; and a 2021 Rockwood Institute JustFilms Fellow. Natalie is director/producer of a documentary work-in-progress that explores the impact of messaging about beauty and aging on Black women, and was a producer on award-winning filmmaker Byron Hurt’s PBS documentary, HAZING, as well as his PBS NOVA film, Lee and Liza’s Family Tree. She has also produced with filmmaker Resita Cox for her upcoming film, Basketball Heaven. Natalie is an adjunct professor at North Carolina State University where she served as an Assistant Teaching Professor in Interdisciplinary Studies for five years. Natalie was the StoryShift Strategist for Working Films, where she guided the organization’s work in promoting accountable documentary storytelling. Natalie was also a monthly guest and contributor for #BackChannel, a segment on North Carolina public radio’s program, The State of Things. And for nearly 12 years, Natalie was an assistant professor of film and broadcast media in the Department of Media & Communications at Saint Augustine's University. She also served 12 years as co-host of Black Issues Forum, a public affairs program on UNC-TV, North Carolina’s statewide public television network. Natalie was an associate producer on documentary filmmaker Ken Burns’ 10-part PBS series, Jazz. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Film Production from Howard University, and a Bachelor of Arts in English from Northwestern University.
Sonya Childress
Color Congress
Sonya Childress is a founding Co-Director of Color Congress, an ecosystem-builder that resources, supports, and connects organizations led by people of color that serve nonfiction filmmakers, leaders, and audiences of color across the US and US islands, with Sahar Driver. As Senior Fellow with the Perspective Fund, she examined issues of ethics, equity and accountability in the documentary field. A veteran strategist, she spent two decades devising impact campaigns and distribution strategies at Active Voice, California Newsreel and Firelight Media, where she piloted a fellowship for impact producers of color. She is a board member of the Center for Cultural Power, a member of the Documentary Accountability Working Group, a working group member for ‘The Lens Reflected’ study, a 2015 Rockwood JustFilms Fellow, a recipient of the 2022 Leading Light Award from Doc NYC, and a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.
Molly Murphy
Working Films
Molly Murphy (pronoun: she) is the Director of Partnerships and Innovation at Working Films. She is one of five executive directors. In her twenty-one year tenure, she has planned and directed national media engagement campaigns, facilitated partnerships and coordinated coalitions centered on the use of documentaries to enhance communication, reach “beyond the choir”, and make an impact on the issues of our time. Molly has designed and led dozens of trainings for filmmakers, grassroots groups, nonprofits, and funders, focused on using film to effect change. At Working Films, she is part of the team that shares responsibility for organizational management and programmatic strategy. She leads institutional partnerships and collective impact initiatives and co-leads fundraising.
Molly also serves on the board of Justice for My Sister (JFMS), a collective that trains women of color, non-binary youth, and foster youth with a culturally-relevant and trauma-informed approach to tell stories through a gender equity and racial justice lens.
Kameelah Mu’Min Oseguera, PsyD
Muslim Wellness Foundation
Dr. Kameelah Mu'Min Oseguera is a leading expert in trauma informed considerations and practices in documentary filmmaking and has served as a consultant to documentary filmmakers, directors and writers on matters related to race, religion, participant care, ethics, consent and healing centered filmmaking. Dr. Kam is the Head of Care at Multitude Films, an Executive Producer and Coordinator of Care and Wellness for the film SUBJECT. Dr. Kam is a member of the Documentary Accountability Working Group (DAWG) and Color Congress, a national collective of majority people of color (POC) and POC-led organizations aimed at centering and strengthening nonfiction storytelling.
Dr. Kam is the Founding Executive Director of Muslim Wellness Foundation and Assistant Professor of Psychology & Muslim Studies at Chicago Theological Seminary. Dr. Kam graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a BA in Psychology and MEd in Psychological Services. She pursued further graduate education, completing a second Masters in Restorative Practices & Youth Counseling (MRP) from the International Institute for Restorative Practices. Dr. Kam completed her doctorate in Clinical Psychology with a concentration in Couple and Family Therapy, at Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia, PA.
Sherry Simpson
ITVS
Sherry Simpson Dean is currently Senior Director of Engagement and Impact Innovation for Independent Television Service (ITVS)). She is a recognized leader at the intersection of media and social change. Most recently, she has instituted an impact innovation pilot, Town Hall in a Box, to amplify the power of documentary films and community conversations to bridge divides and to build ally ship.
Her expertise has been honed over the last fifteen years, during which time she has developed and secured financing for multiple film, television and music projects. This list includes her production AMANDLA! a revolution in four-part harmony for which she won an Emmy and Sundance Film Festival Awards. Following the success of this film she was deemed a subject-matter-expert on South Africa’s human rights struggle and lectured globally on the impact of reconciliation through film, arts and culture.
Bhawin Suchak
Next Doc
Bhawin is an educator, filmmaker, and the co-founder and co-executive director of Youth FX, a nationally renowned media arts organization focused on empowering young people by teaching creative and technical skills in film and digital media. He is also co-director of NeXt Doc, a year-round fellowship program of Youth FX that exists to amplify the voices of emerging documentary filmmakers of color. Bhawin is the director, cinematographer and editor of Outta The Muck (2022), a feature length documentary supported by Sundance Institute, ITVS, Just Films, Black Public Media and Southern Documentary Fund which aired on PBS’ Independent Lens series in 2023. He also previously directed The Throwaways (2014) and Free To Learn (2004). Bhawin is a 2019 Just Films Rockwood Fellow, 2019 Sundance Documentary Film Program Fellow, and a member of A-Doc: Asian American Documentary Network and the Documentary Accountability Working Group.
Hannah Hearn
Working Films
Hannah Hearn (she/her) joined Working Films in 2018 and currently serves as an Impact Coordinator and Fellowships Lead. She holds a B.A. in Film Studies and a Minor in Entrepreneurship & Business Development from UNC Wilmington. In her time at Working Films, Hannah has organized film screenings for action on racial and environmental justice, designed and led sessions on documentary impact and accountability, co-coordinated programs that support underrepresented filmmakers, and fostered hands-on learning opportunities for students new to this work. Previously, she was the Managing Director of Visions Film Festival & Conference and the Sound Mixer for the feature-length documentary “Dead in the Water” - a film that exposes the harmful practices of factory farms in eastern NC. Throughout her different roles, Hannah continually seeks to learn and think about the ways in which films, creative expression, and authentic representation can affect change.
