shawney
DOCUMENTARY.
TRUE CRIME.
STORIES WITH TEETH.
Shawney Cohen is a documentary filmmaker, producer, and story editor working across unscripted, true crime, and character-driven factual storytelling. His work has appeared on Paramount, Hulu, Discovery, CBC, FOX, Amazon, Vice, and Crave.
In 2026, he directed Amazon MGM’s limited series on Robert Pickton. His YouTube documentary Tokyo’s Subway Horror was also nominated for a Webby Award.
Adhocracy Media
Adhocracy Media is the independent production company of filmmaker Shawney Cohen, built around unusual subcultures and stories strong enough to carry a feature doc, series, or franchise.
An early adopter of AI workflows in film and television, Adhocracy explores AI-assisted development as a practical tool for research, storyboarding, visual experimentation, audience behavior analysis, and custom computational editorial models for tone, pacing, and story strategy.
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A member of the video store generation of filmmakers, Cohen began his career in computer animation and worked as a CG supervisor on Zack Snyder’s first film in 2004 before moving into documentary and factual storytelling. He later became a senior producer and director at Vice Media, leading character-driven documentary work during the company’s rise as a major force in digital journalism.
Cohen’s directing debut, The Manor, an intimate vérité portrait of his family’s strip club and his parents’ eating disorders, opened Hot Docs, received support from the Tribeca Film Institute Documentary Fund, and was nominated for Best International Documentary at the Zurich Film Festival.
In 2019, Cohen received the TELUS Feature Documentary Fund to direct Rat Park, a Crave Original feature documentary exploring addiction, now used in college psychology programs.
shawney@adhocracymedia.com
