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Friday, June 12
3:30 PM - 5:30 PM

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

641 D St NW, Washington, DC 20004

for all screenings

When a Witness Recants

Director

Dawn Porter

Executive Producers

Ta-Nehisi Coates, Kenyatta Matthews, Kamilah Forbes, Jennifer Gonnerman, Nancy Abraham, Lisa Heller, Sara Rodriguez, Eli Holzman, Aaron Saidman

Producers

Dawn Porter, Jennifer Oko, Miriam Weintraub

Editor

Jessica Congdon

Co-Editor

Jessica Congdon

Cinematographer

Bryan Gentry

Composer

Osei Essed

Animator

Dawud Anyabwile

In 1983, author Ta-Nehisi Coates recalls learning that a 14-year-old boy was murdered in the corridor of his Baltimore middle school. Revisiting the case as an adult, he uncovers the truth about three teenagers wrongfully convicted and sentenced to life. After 36 years in prison, false testimony is revealed to have led to their imprisonment.

WHEN A WITNESS RECANTS examines how three young men from Coates’ community were convicted on testimony from children pressured to take the stand. As the film traces their path from incarceration to exoneration, it reveals how media narratives and systemic failures shaped the case—and the lives it altered.

Moving between past and present, the film considers how a community absorbs and lives with the consequences of injustice, ultimately reflecting on the power of narrative—how it can define, distort, and, at times, begin to restore what has been lost.

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Dawn Porter

Director, When a Witness Recants

Dawn Porter is an acclaimed American documentary filmmaker and founder of Trilogy Films, known for her storytelling on social justice, history, and cultural icons. Her documentaries, including TRAPPED, JOHN LEWIS: GOOD TROUBLE, and THE LADY BIRD DIARIES, have aired on platforms including HBO, Netflix, Amazon, Apple, CNN, and PBS.

Her recent film LUTHER: NEVER TOO MUCH highlights the life and legacy of Luther Vandross. Produced with Sony Music Entertainment, Jamie Foxx’s Foxxhole, and Colin Firth’s Raindog Films, the film was released in theaters and premiered on CNN/MAX on January 1, 2025. Her recent work, THE SING SING CHRONICLES, won the Best Documentary Emmy at the 46th annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards.

A three-time Sundance Film Festival alum, Porter’s film GIDEON’S ARMY was nominated for an Emmy and an Independent Spirit Award and won the Ridenhour Prize and the American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel Award. TRAPPED also earned a Silver Gavel, along with a Peabody Award and the Sundance Special Jury Prize for Social Impact Filmmaking, while JOHN LEWIS: GOOD TROUBLE won the 2021 NAACP Image Award.

Her work has been widely recognized with honors including the Critics’ Choice Impact Award (2022) and Gracie Awards (2022, 2023). She was recently awarded the National Humanities Medal by Joe Biden, elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and received the IDA Career Achievement Award.

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