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Rebecca Richman Cohen

Lecturer on Law

2025-2026

Rebecca Richman Cohen
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Rebecca Richman Cohen is an Emmy-nominated documentary filmmaker who teaches courses on media theory and advocacy. Through her work, she has examined a range of topics, including the prosecution of war crimes in Sierra Leone, responses to sexual violence in the US, cannabis legalization, and biodynamic winemaking. Her most recent film, The Recall: Reframed (broadcast on MSNBC) is the first in a trilogy of short films about mass incarceration, sexual violence, and racial justice. Her SXSW and Tribeca-award winning documentaries have been hosted on platforms including HBO, Amazon, Netflix, New York Times, LA Times, Al Jazeera, public television, and more. She has taught at RISD, American University’s Human Rights Institute, and Columbia University’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights, and has held fellowships with Open Society Foundations, Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, Harvard’s Film Study Center, and the Nieman Foundation for Journalism. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts with her very good dog and some nice humans too.

She is a faculty affiliate at the Shorenstein Center’s Documentary Film in the Public Interest initiative at the Harvard Kennedy School.

Education

  • B.A. Portguese and Brazilian Studies Brown University, 2002
  • J.D. Harvard Law School, 2007

Board Memberships

  • Board member, New Media Advocacy Project (N-Map) (2015 - 2017)
    New York, New York

Honors and Awards

  • Emmy Nomination (Awards)
    Outstanding Continuing Coverage of a News Story - War Don Don, 2011
  • CINE Golden Eagle Award (Awards)
    Investigative Reporting - Code of the West, 2013
  • Hugo Munsterberg Award for Psychology of Human Nature in Cinema (Awards)
    April 2011
  • Best Film Award, Festival International du Film des Droits de L’Homme (Awards)
    Investigative Report Jury - War Don Don, 2010
  • Human Rights Watch Film Festival, New York (Awards)
    Cinereach Award, June 2010
  • Taiwan International Documentary Festival (Awards)
    First Merit Prize, October 2010
  • SXSW (Awards)
    Special Jury Award, March 2010