This June, Jackson-Reed Alumni Sophie ReVeal was a member of the Emmy award winning team for her work on The Sixth, a documentary about the January 6th insurrection. The Sixth won for Outstanding Politics and Government Documentary at the Emmys and, by extension, ReVeal won for her work as the film’s Archival Researcher. 

Ironically, according to ReVeal, “the film originally started out as a documentary on the importance of a peaceful transfer of power.”  When they went to shoot video of Trump’s last speech to Congress, however, the insurrection began. This changed “the entire direction of the documentary” because their videographer, Mel D. Cole, was able to get incredible original footage.

For ReVeal, who came on board soon after January 6th, she worked with the archival team to create a timeline of events from their original videos and videos posted to social media platforms, like Parlor. ReVeal emphasized that they were able to gather videos from online, “but did not pay any of the insurrectionists for their videos.” Alongside editors Jeff Consiglio and Chrystie Martinez-Gouz, she helped gather and organize all the footage of the attack to accurately tell the story. 

ReVeal has been interested in film her whole life. At Jackson-Reed, she ran the movie club and was Managing Editor of the Beacon. She is grateful to Jackson-Reed for teaching her “the power of protest and the importance of journalism ethics.” When Trump was elected for the first time, she remembers how supportive and strong the JR community was, even organizing a walk out which ReVeal says contributed to her passion for film and politics. 

The Sixth was released on March 24th, 2024 at a screening here in D.C. The film did not have a big cinematic release, instead having various smaller screenings around the country. ReVeal attributes this in part to the fact that “it was right around the time of the 2024 election and A24, one of our production companies, didn’t really do a lot to publicize it.” Now, however, the film is available to stream on all major streaming platforms. •