Haley Willis, a 2019 graduate of UC Berkeley, is on the visual investigations team at the New York Times and a co-producer of Day of Rage, a documentary about the 2021 U.S. Capitol attack.
For the first time, a New York Times documentary made in-house, Day of Rage: How Trump Supporters Took the U.S. Capitol, is shortlisted for an Oscar for Best Documentary Short Subject. The 40-minute graphic, fast-paced film was created by the Times’ award-winning visual investigations team, which includes UC Berkeley alumna Haley Willis, who graduated in 2019 with degrees in sociology and media studies.
Willis, a visual investigations reporter and video producer, coproduced the film, a meticulous analysis of thousands of cellphone videos, police bodycam footage, internal police radio traffic, and video from Capitol security cameras about the 2021 U.S. Capitol attack. The result of the six-month project is the most complete chronology to date of what happened that day, and why. The film has been streamed more than 8.5 million times.
Finalists for the March 27 Academy Awards will be announced Feb. 8. Day of Rage already is a finalist in the 2022 duPont-Columbia Awards, as is American Insurrection, a 90-minute documentary about the threat posed by militia groups, white supremacists and other extremist groups produced by Berkeley Journalism’s Investigative Reporting Program, PBS “Frontline” and ProPublica.