HARLEM WEEK/IMAGENATION FILM FESTIVAL Special Screening & Conversation
2026-08-03 18:00 - 21:30 (America/New_York) | The Lee C. Bollinger Forum, 601 W 125th St, New York, NY, 10027, United States
Film: WHEN A WITNESS RECANTS (NYC Premier)
This free, HARLEM WEEK premiere screening of When a Witness Recants, the acclaimed new documentary by filmmaker Dawn Porter, will feature a post screening panel discussion with invited guest panelists. Together, they will explore themes of justice, wrongful conviction, and the power of storytelling to advance social change.

In 1983, author Ta-Nehisi Coates learned that a 14-year-old boy was murdered in his Baltimore middle school. Upon revisiting the case, he uncovers the truth: Three innocent teenagers were wrongfully convicted and spent 36 years in prison — creating a lasting impact on the accused, the witnesses, and their community.
Documentarian Dawn Porter collaborates with author Ta-Nehisi Coates to examine the case surrounding the first student murdered inside a Baltimore public school. Three innocent men from Coates’ community were incarcerated for 36 years on the false testimony of children coerced to take the stand.
How could something like this happen?
Porter illuminates the complete journey: how carefree Black boys playing in the streets of 1980s Baltimore were framed by the media and the justice system; how they grew up behind bars as the world whizzed by; how they were eventually exonerated; and how the community they re-entered grapples with the lingering damage of false narratives.
When A Witness Recants is ultimately about the deep power of narrative: how it can extinguish lives — and how it can potentially resurrect them. — SF
