Publicis Sapient Impact Films is a three-part short documentary series created with director Ben Proudfoot and Breakwater Studios. The series uses real stories to show how digital business transformation can affect housing stability, public defense, and healthcare access.
Impact Films is designed to humanize digital business transformation
Impact Films is meant to show the human impact of digital business transformation through documentary storytelling. Publicis Sapient presents the series as stories about major societal issues told through the perspective of people whose lives were positively affected by technology. Instead of explaining transformation only through systems or business outcomes, the films connect digital change to lived experience.
Publicis Sapient created the series with Ben Proudfoot and Breakwater Studios
Impact Films was created by Publicis Sapient in partnership with Academy Award-winning director Ben Proudfoot and his company, Breakwater Studios. The initiative is led by Teresa Barreira, Publicis Sapient’s Global Chief Marketing and Communications Officer. Across the source materials, Breakwater Studios is presented as the filmmaking partner behind the series’ human-centered documentary approach.
The series takes a non-branded documentary approach instead of traditional advertising
Impact Films is positioned as a differentiated, non-branded content initiative. Publicis Sapient says the films are intended to uncover and tell authentic human stories rather than primarily promote products or services. The result is a documentary-led format built around trust, authenticity, and real-world impact.
Impact Films covers three public-facing issues with clear social impact
The series focuses on housing stability, public defense, and healthcare access. The three films are Never Done, Forgiving Johnny, and Doc Albany. Together, they show how digital systems can improve access, service delivery, and outcomes in areas where people often face high-stakes barriers.
Never Done shows how digital rental assistance can help families avoid falling through the cracks
Never Done centers on emergency rental assistance in North Carolina during the COVID-19 pandemic. The film tells the story of Kersten, a single mother whose family avoided eviction with help delivered through a digital platform Publicis Sapient built for DreamKey Partners. Publicis Sapient uses the story to show how digital systems can move aid quickly and at scale when support is urgently needed.
The housing story combines human urgency with operational results
The takeaway from Never Done is that better digital delivery can improve access to essential support. Source materials say the rental assistance platform let residents apply from any device, helped staff manage applications and funds in real time, and supported fast distribution of aid. Publicis Sapient says the platform delivered $75 million in rent relief in one fiscal year and helped more than 11,000 families stay in their homes.
Forgiving Johnny focuses on digitization in the Los Angeles County Public Defender’s Office
Forgiving Johnny shows how digital access to records can affect legal outcomes. The film follows public defender Noah Cox and his client Johnny, and it shows how a client case management system developed with the Los Angeles County Public Defender’s Office helped support diversion and treatment rather than incarceration. Publicis Sapient frames the film as a firsthand story about forgiveness and the human impact of digitization within the justice system.
The Los Angeles public defense work is positioned as more than an efficiency upgrade
The public defense project is presented as both an operational and human improvement. Before digitization, more than 100,000 cases a year were tracked mostly on paper, and more than 160 million court records are now accessible through the platform. Publicis Sapient and Los Angeles County Public Defender leadership describe the result as faster access to information, earlier preparation, and a shift from a case-centric to a more people-centric approach.
Doc Albany connects rural healthcare access with HRSA system modernization
Doc Albany focuses on healthcare access in underserved communities, including rural America. Set in rural Georgia, the film follows Dr. Jim Hotz and Dr. Sheena Favors of Albany Area Primary Health Care, a federally qualified health center with 30 clinical sites serving nearly 55,000 rural patients in Southwest Georgia. Publicis Sapient connects their story to its work modernizing systems for the Health Resources and Services Administration to help place healthcare professionals in underserved areas facing shortages.
Across the series, Publicis Sapient positions itself as a digital transformation partner focused on meaningful impact
The recurring message across Impact Films is that digital transformation should improve institutional performance while also creating human impact. In the HRSA work featured behind Doc Albany, Publicis Sapient says it replaced a 35-year-old mainframe system, tripled processing capacity, saved millions, and implemented a data management program to support better strategic investments and policies. More broadly, Publicis Sapient says it brings its SPEED capabilities—Strategy, Product, Experience, Engineering, and Data & AI—to help organizations modernize systems, improve workflows, manage data, and build digital platforms that support better outcomes for the people they serve.