Rachel Antell and Jennifer Petrucelli met while completing graduate work at Stanford University’s Documentary Film program.  Sub-Basement Archival brings together their considerable and complementary strengths - honed for 15 years in documentary production. Since its founding in 2014, Sub-Basement has had the honor of working on award-winning documentaries on a wide range of social and political topics that have aired on public television, network television and the major streaming platforms. Sub-Basement projects have screened at Sundance and festivals worldwide, garnered three FOCAL Awards for use of archival footage, and received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Research in a Documentary.

Recently, along with Stephanie Jenkins of Florentine Films, Jen and Rachel co-founded the Archival Producers Alliance , an organization created to influence policy and effect change within the industry .

Rachel Antell

Before co-founding Sub-Basement Archival, Rachel served as Co-Producer and Archival Producer for Nancy Kates’ internationally acclaimed documentary Regarding Susan Sontag. The film aired on HBO, and received a FOCAL International award for its archival footage. Rachel has edited several feature documentaries, including Why We Sing, and  Occupied Minds, and was the Director and Producer of Death on a Friendly Border which explores the rising number of migrant deaths on the US-Mexico border. This film garnered an Angelus Award and was broadcast on KQED, Link-TV, and RTVE in Spain. 

Rachel also spent six years conducting research for Harvard University’s Pluralism Project, and was an archival researcher and production manager for Henry Louis Gates’ Encyclopedia Africana. Rachel earned a Masters degree in Documentary Film from Stanford University, an MTS from Harvard University, and a BA from Hamilton College.

Jennifer Petrucelli

Prior to co-founding Sub-Basement Archival, Jennifer worked as a producer in film and television for nearly 20 years.  She wrote, produced and conducted extensive archival research on a series of historical documentaries for Lucasfilm.   Jennifer also wrote and produced the Lucasfilm feature documentary, Double Victory, about the Tuskegee Airmen and  served as co-producer on Manifest Destiny, a three-part educational series that examines the history of American expansionism and foreign policy from the Spanish-American War to present-day.

In addition to her documentary work, Jennifer has served as Producer on feature projects at Industrial Light + Magic, as well as on commercial productions for Publicis & Hal Riney and Actual Films. Jennifer earned a Masters degree in Documentary Film from Stanford University and a BA in History from Cornell University.