Dawn Porter is an American documentary filmmaker and founder of production company Trilogy Films.

Early life and education

Porter is a graduate of the

Bronx High School of Science The Bronx High School of Science, commonly called Bronx Science, is a public specialized high school in The Bronx in New York City. It is operated by the New York City Department of Education. Admission to Bronx Science involves passing the Spec ...

Swarthmore College Swarthmore College ( , ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the earliest coeduca ...

(in 1988) and

Georgetown University Law School The Georgetown University Law Center (Georgetown Law) is the law school of Georgetown University, a private research university in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1870 and is the largest law school in the United States by enrollment and ...

. Trained as an attorney, she became a filmmaker and financed her first film with assistance from the

Ford Foundation The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a US$25,000 gift from Edsel Ford. By 1947, after the death ...

Career

Porter started her film career by working as executive producer for various films. In 2009, she executive-produced director

Jon Bowermaster Jon Bowermaster (born June 29, 1954) is an oceans expert, journalist, author, filmmaker, adventurer and six-time grantee of the National Geographic Expeditions Council. One of the Society’s ‘Ocean Heroes,’ his first assignment for ''Nationa ...

's ''Terra Antarctica, Re-Discovering the Seventh Continent'', a 49-minute documentary exploring the Antarctica Peninsula and its evolution. In 2009, she also co-executive produced two other films: '' Serious Moonlight'', and ''What Would Darwin Think? Man v. Nature in the Galapagos''. In 2011, she co-executive produced ''The Green'', a romantic drama feature film directed by Steven Williford. Porter's directorial debut was the 2013 documentary film '' Gideon's Army'', about three black

public defender A public defender is a lawyer appointed to represent people who otherwise cannot reasonably afford to hire a lawyer to defend themselves in a trial. Several countries provide people with public defenders, including the UK, Hungary and Singapore, ...

s working in the American Deep South. The film premiered at the

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...

in 2013, where it won the festival's "Documentary Editing Award". The film also won the Creative Promise Award at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. ''Gideon’s Army'' premiered on

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

in July 2013, and was later nominated for an

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

, and an

Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary Feature The Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary Feature is one of the annual Independent Spirit Awards. It is given to the director(s) of the film and since 2014 it is also given to the producers. It was first presented in 2000, with Marc Singer ...

. The film also won the Ridenhour Award for best documentary film in 2014. Porter's second film project was ''Spies of Mississippi'', which debuted on

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

in 2014. It is 53-minute documentary shot in black and white colour about

Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission The Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission (also called the Sov-Com) was a state agency in Mississippi from 1956 to 1977 tasked with fighting desegregation and controlling civil rights activism. It was overseen by the Governor of Mississippi. T ...

(MSSC) efforts to preserve

segregation Segregation may refer to: Separation of people * Geographical segregation, rates of two or more populations which are not homogenous throughout a defined space * School segregation * Housing segregation * Racial segregation, separation of humans ...

during the 1950s and 1960s, including the use of an extensive spy network and violent cover-ups. The film was written by Rick Bowers and directed by Porter. '' Trapped'', Porter's third film, premiered at

in 2016. It shows the impact of anti-abortion laws on abortion providers in the South along with chronicling the last remaining abortion clinic in Mississippi. Porter says she decided it was her duty to make this film, after witnessing there was only one abortion clinic in the entire state of Mississippi. The title of the documentary was derived from the term TRAP Laws ("Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers"), which have led to the closure of hundreds of southern US clinics mainly in areas that service poor women and women of color. Due to the film's potent subject matter on abortion, police were hired to stand guard outside screenings, and to check for weapons at the door. She also produced a biography of Chef Alexandra Guarnaschelli for the

Cooking Channel Cooking Channel is an American basic cable channel owned by Food Network, a joint venture and general partnership between Warner Bros. Discovery Networks (69%) and Nexstar Media Group (31%). The channel is a spin-off of Food Network, broadcasting p ...

Filmography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Porter, Dawn Living people Year of birth missing (living people) American documentary filmmakers American film directors African-American film directors Georgetown University Law Center alumni Swarthmore College alumni American women documentary filmmakers The Bronx High School of Science alumni 21st-century African-American people 21st-century African-American women