Help Us Stay Paywall-Free

Democracy depends on the free exchange of ideas. Help sustain it with a tax-deductible donation today.

Sierra Pettengill

Sierra Pettengill is a Brooklyn-based filmmaker who works primarily with archival material. Most recently, she directed the “Big Dan’s” episode of the Netflix documentary series Trial by Media. Her 2017 feature-length film, the all-archival documentary The Reagan Show, premiered at the Locarno Film Festival before airing on CNN. Her 2018 all-archival short film, Graven Image, aired on POV and is held at the Legacy Museum in Montgomery, Alabama, and her 2020 short Business of Thought premiered at the Sheffield Documentary Festival. In 2013 she produced the Academy Award–nominated film Cutie & the Boxer, which also won an Emmy Award for Best Documentary, and codirected Town Hall for PBS. She has also worked as an archival researcher for many filmmakers including Jim Jarmusch, Mathieu Amalric, and Mike Mills. Pettengill was a Sundance Institute Art of Nonfiction Fellow, and a fellow at the Yaddo and MacDowell colonies.

Articles

Watch our release of documentary short The Rifleman on the NRA. Then read an interview with filmmaker Sierra Pettengill and historian Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz.

Sierra Pettengill, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

"A tremendous resource in this time of chaos."

We publish leading scholars, activists, and writers on the most pressing political debates of our time.

But as a small nonprofit, we rely on reader support. Will you help support bold thinking about a more just world?

"An indispensable pillar of the public sphere."

That’s what sociologist Alondra Nelson says of Boston Review. Independent and nonprofit, we believe in the power of collective reasoning and imagination to create a more just world.

That’s why there are no paywalls on our website, but we can’t do it without the support of our readers. Will you make a tax-deductible contribution today?