Potter Pictures is a documentary studio built for people and organizations who know their story is bigger than a press release, a social post, or a single news cycle. We look for stories that are urgent, fragile, contested, and often deeply tied to legacy. These are stories about how a person, a community, or an institution came to be, what they’ve stood for, and what they’re willing to fight to protect. Based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, we approach every film as an immersive, high-stakes production where the world is complicated, the subjects are fully human, and the outcome matters for both the present and the future.

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We gravitate toward the pressure points of society, education, legal aid, youth, social justice, rural and urban communities, places where systems collide with everyday lives and where a single story can shift the conversation. Often, these are legacy stories: founders passing the torch, organizations at a crossroads, families and communities whose histories risk being forgotten or rewritten. Our films are character-driven, rigorously reported, and crafted with the same technical discipline you’d expect from a major motion picture. We bring the eye of a journalist, the heart of a storyteller, and the toolkit of an experienced production company. Every frame serves two masters: truth and tension.

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At Potter Pictures, a film is never “content.” It’s a mission, and frequently, it’s an act of legacy-building. We stay in the room after most cameras would have cut, letting moments breathe until the polished surface breaks and something honest appears: a founder’s doubt, a young person’s breakthrough, a community’s turning point. We build narratives that don’t play like glossy brochures, but as engines for awareness and impact, films that can reveal buried truths, preserve hard-won history, and reframe how people see one another. Our work is designed to move audiences from emotion to action and to stand as a document future generations can look back on.

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Founded by producer and director Earl W. Potter, the company operates like a tight, focused crew on a demanding shoot. Filmmakers, subjects, and partners are collaborators, not bystanders. Our first question on any project is simple: What happens if this story doesn’t get told, or isn’t preserved the right way? From there, we back-engineer everything, structure, visuals, pacing, and outreach strategy—to make sure it is captured with clarity, dignity, and cinematic force. Our films have premiered at festivals, traveled widely, and anchored campaigns that don’t just spark conversation, but help move resources, policy, and public will, while leaving a lasting record of the people and institutions at their center.

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In a culture built on scroll and swipe, Potter Pictures is committed to long-form, high-impact nonfiction that refuses to be ignored. For partners who want more than visibility, for those seeking a documentary that can both deliver impact now and stand as a legacy piece for the future—Potter Pictures offers a way to tell the story that cannot afford to remain in the shadows.

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If you have a story that carries a legacy—of a person, a place, a movement, a school, a practice, and it needs to be seen, heard, and remembered, we’re ready to roll.