Filmmaker and alumna Julia Reichert ’70 will be the College’s Commencement speaker at its virtual ceremony to be streamed on Saturday, June 20, 2020 at 1 PM ET. The livestream will be available to view by the public on the College’s Commencement website at 1 PM via antiochcollege.edu/commencement.

Antioch College’s Commencement ceremony will also include addresses to the Class of 2020 by graduating students Athina Peterson and Truth Garrett. Annual SOCHE awards will also be presented to College faculty members.

Julia Reichert has, for 50 years, been an active member and builder of the American documentary filmmaking community. She designed her own major at Antioch—combining classes and practicum from the education program with course and projects in film, photography, and radio—and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1970.

Julia’s student film, Growing Up Female, was the first feature documentary of the modern Women’s Movement. It was selected for the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress. Her films Union Maids and Seeing Red: Stories of American Communists,  (with Jim Klein ’72) were nominated for Academy Awards for Best Feature Documentary, as was The Last Truck, for Best Documentary (Short Subject). Her film A Lion in the House (made with Steven Bognar) premiered at Sundance, won the Primetime Emmy for Exceptional Merit in Nonfiction Filmmaking.  

The couple won the 2020 Academy Award for American Factory 美国工厂.  Julia is co-founder of New Day Films, the independent film distribution co-op. She is author of Doing It Yourself, the first book on self-distribution in indie film. 

Julia has been drawn to focus on class, gender, and race in her work.