Dawn Porter is a documentary filmmaker with a knack for telling stories that aren’t being told. Using overlooked narratives and historical figures as her subjects, paired with exquisite imagery and intentional music, Porter creates award-winning films and television shows. And she’s not stopping anytime soon. Her latest project, Eyes on the Prize III – a new installment inspired by the documentary series Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Movement – premiered on HBO earlier this year. It’s her most personal and progressive to date. And it has a Vineyard connection.
Martha’s Vineyard Magazine caught up with Porter to discuss her creative process, her various projects, and how her career in law led her to the film industry. An edited transcript follows.
Martha’s Vineyard Magazine: Four years ago, you were approached by HBO to executive produce Eyes on the Prize III, the Civil Rights Movement documentary series. Were you familiar with the first two parts that aired in 1987 and 1990?
Dawn Porter: Oh, yes. I mean Eyes on the Prize was taught in schools; it really was such a formative part of my early education. It told stories I had never heard before and it really sparked interest in civil rights for me. It was the shining beacon of what a documentary could be, so, to tell you the truth, I was hesitant at first [to accept the job] because it was – and is – an important documentary series and you want to [keep up] the high standard. I said no at first, then thought, “I really should kind of challenge myself.”
MVM: Can you share what the process was like from being hired as executive producer to hiring directors for each episode?
DP: I think, at first, the thought was that I would direct. I direct films and produce films. So, I researched Henry Hampton, who was…the person who originated Eyes, and what I discovered is that Hampton hired teams of directors to search for stories of ordinary people doing civil rights work. I thought, “How do we make this contemporary? How do we honor the format of Eyes and the message of Eyes?”
So, the first thing I thought was, “Okay, I’m not going to direct this, I’m going to find some other really talented directors and we’re going to have six teams of people – one director, a producer, an associate producer.” We made these little pods for each hour and that was the first decision. The second decision was that we would all work collaboratively. For everyone that was able to make it…we sat in our conference room in person…and we all watched the original Eyes together as a group.
MVM: What was that like?
DP: That was emotional and inspirational. We talked about what we saw, what they did that was successful, what we wanted to stylistically include.… But what watching it together did was bond us as a group. We were doing more than an ordinary documentary, we were being part of history, part of Eyes on the Prize…. And then the last thing we did was we all selected the stories together. We did a lot of back and forth and thinking about the people and the stories because…they’re the next group of civil rights warriors, so we wanted to be careful and intentional in selecting them.
MVM: What do you hope viewers will take away from this series?
DP: These are stories that sadly are evergreen. Episode four, “Spoil the Vine,” is about environmental racism. It’s about releasing chemicals in a primarily Black neighborhood, and just this week we’re hearing about “Cancer Alley” in Louisiana – these things are still happening. These stories are more relevant now in a kind of devastating but poignant way.
MVM: Some Vineyarders are part of the documentary, including musician John Forté and Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School student Fiona Brown. What was collaborating with them like?
DP: I knew of John – I had seen him perform and saw him around the Island with his children, but I didn’t know John personally. Laurie David, another Islander who is very good at connecting people, said, “You and John should meet. John is working on some music that I think you’ll like and I’m sure you’re working on a film that he would like.”
[At the time,] I was working on a short film about Breonna Taylor [Bree Wayy: Promise Witness Remembrance], so I said, “John, come to my house, let me show you what I’m working on….” I show John a scene and he said, “The music I’m working on speaks to what you’re doing.” So, John became the composer of that film. And when we were working on Eyes, I went back to John and asked him if he would do the music for some of the other pieces and he said, “I would like to do the music for the whole series.”
I would go over to his basement on the Vineyard and I would play a scene and he would play some music and we would talk about what people were doing. It was a very interactive process.... I’m not a musician and what they do is like alchemy….
One of the most important things is the theme song for Eyes. We thought, “Do we license the original?” and John said, “There’s this young girl on the Island and I feel like that would be something really great.” So, it was his idea to bring in Fiona…. Then, during episode five [“We Don’t See Color”], we learned that one of our main subjects could sing, so John found the studio and brought Fiona and Miss Mary from episode five, and we recorded the new theme song in New Orleans.
MVM: Another recent project of yours is Luther: Never Too Much, about R&B legend Luther Vandross’s career and personal life. How did you condense such a vibrant artist into one film?
DP: The Luther film was something different for me. I had never done a music documentary. I was familiar with Luther’s music, but I didn’t know his story. The challenge there was he had such a big career, created so much music. But also, he wasn’t here, so how do you honor someone and tell the truth as you see it for someone who isn’t here? I watched a ton of archival interviews, and I had just finished not that long ago The Lady Bird Diaries…so I was really into archives. So I thought what this can do is Luther can really tell his story this way.
MVM: Your next project, Nobody: The Bert Williams Story, was recently announced. What drew you to this vaudeville icon?
DP: Bert Williams is really a fascinating character: a Black man performing in the 1920s and ’30s at a time when it was such a fraught time in Black history. On one hand, it’s the Black Renaissance, it’s Harlem, people meeting in homes, and artists and poets are philosophers. Bert was part of this Harlem Renaissance, and he chose to perform in blackface, which felt like such a betrayal to the Black community.
It’s a scripted project, so that’s something new for me. It’s scary because it’s new. I’m excited to have a new challenge and we’ll see what happens. Maybe there’s some Islander collaborations waiting to happen.
MVM: Your career began in law. You graduated from Georgetown University Law Center and practiced in D.C. for five years before joining ABC News’s legal department, which led you to A&E. After leaving A&E you founded Trilogy Films. Can you talk a little bit about your law-to-documentarian career path?
DP: I was a litigator, and what you do as a litigator is you really learn to listen. Knowing how to ask questions, but really knowing how to listen, that’s really what we do in documentaries, I just now get to add some pictures. My father was a photographer, and I always loved photography, and I realized, oh my goodness – with footage – those pictures can talk! [Documentary filmmaking is] really kind of a combination of so many things that I love. It’s not quite as different as people might think, at least the way I approach my film. And the best part of filmmaking is really discovery – meeting people and discovering how we are similar or what motivates them. There is always something that you learn from a film in the process of making it – about yourself…but also about the people or the times that you’re covering. I really do feel very lucky that this is my job.
MVM: When did your love for Martha’s Vineyard begin?
DP: We came to Martha’s Vineyard in 1998. My husband had been here in college…. He went to Brown [University in Rhode Island] and used to come here in the summers. Then some very good friends of ours from Washington said, “Let’s go to Martha’s Vineyard,” so we all came and had such a great time. Then we had our first child, Eli, and we started coming every summer since. In 2011 we bought our house, which was a wreck (laughs), and we slowly fixed it up and it’s been our happy place ever since.
We really respect what the Island offers, and we try to be good – to give to it as much as we take from it. We’ve met some friends who are so important to us, some places that are so important to us, like the Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival, and traditions that we love, like going to the fireworks.
MVM: What’s something most people don’t know about you?
DP: Most people on the Island know these things (laughs), but I really like being alone. One of the things I like about the Vineyard is that you can feel so completely satisfied by yourself. There’s always a new path to discover or a new part of nature. My perfect Vineyard day would be a long walk, play some tennis, work on my knitting, meet a friend or friends at their house, and have my kids and family around. Then just rinse and repeat. That’s the perfect day.
