About

I’m a French-American journalist who films, produces, and edits documentaries and branded content. I love finding the beauty in the everyday whether I’m shooting for a company or for a documentary.

I've worked as a producer at Still I Rise Films where I helped start and run a fellowship program for women filmmakers and artists. I shoot and edit films for news organizations, nonprofits, and corporate clients. Most recently, I directed and edited branded films for companies, edited visual content for the United Nations Population Fund. I also directed and edited two short documentaries. THE SEED spans 10 years of San Francisco's "Flower Man." The film won the Grand Jury Award for Best Short Documentary at the United Nations Association Film Festival and the grand prize at the San Francisco Independent Short Film Festival. THE MISSION tells the story of a longtime community activist who jumped into action when Covid hit. I’ve edited feature films, documentary trailers, and social media shorts.

As a grantee of the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting, I produced and edited illustrated stories on the challenges low-income students faced during the pandemic over the course of a yearlong project.

I started my career as a print journalist, writing and editing for magazines and news websites. I've reported for The Associated Press, I worked as news manager at Yahoo and I'm the co-author of "San Francisco: The Unknown City" (Arsenal Pulp Press), which was shortlisted for a ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year award.

My stories have been published in the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today and the Los Angeles Times among other publications. I helped start and run Mission Local, an award-winning news website. I've filmed and edited video for television, news outlets as well as corporate clients.

I hold a Master's degree from U.C. Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism with a focus on multimedia journalism. I’ve been a Carnegie-Knight News21 fellow and a U.C. Berkeley fellow. I've created and ran video workshops and taught video at U.C. Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism as well as high schools and primary schools in the Bay Area. I've spoken at journalism events around the United States including the Online News Association.

You can contact me at helenegoupil (at) gmail.com.