RISE AGAIN: TULSA AND THE RED SUMMER follows Washington Post reporter DeNeen Brown as she chronicles the discovery of a mass grave in Tulsa Oklahoma and investigates the reign of racial terror and legacy of violence that swept across the United States in the early 20th century.
Filmmaker Dawn Porter
Award-winning filmmaker, producer, and mental health/social justice advocate Dawn Porter has emerged in the entertainment industry as a leader in the art of storytelling; directing and producing critically acclaimed projects that have impacted generations of people from all walks of life. This year, Porter directed and executive produced Oprah Winfrey and Prince Harry’s documentary series on mental illness and mental well-being, titled “The Me You Can’t See” for Apple TV+. In addition, her newest documentary feature, “Rise Again: Tulsa and the Red Summer” (National Geographic) sheds new light on a century-old period of intense racial conflict and comes one hundred years from the two-day Tulsa Massacre in 1921. The two-hour special premiered on June 18, 2021. In 2020.
Porter’s two poignant documentaries, “The Way I See It” (Focus Features) which is a look into two American presidencies, Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama from the lens of official White House photographer Pete Souza, and “John Lewis: Good Trouble” (Magnolia Pictures), the story of the congressman and civil rights icon have been praised by critics and audiences alike. As a two-time Sundance film festival director, Porter discovered her passion for filmmaking following her time as an attorney. She made her feature directorial debut in 2013 with “Gideon’s Army,” which premiered on HBO, was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award and an Emmy, won Best Editing at Sundance, and is now part of the U.S. Department of State’s American Film Showcase. Her 2016 film “Trapped,” which explores laws regulating abortion clinics in the South, won the Special Jury Social-Impact Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, and a Peabody Award (to name a few). Additional credits for Porter include PBS’ “Spies of Mississippi,” The Discovery Channel’s “Rise: The Promise of My Brother’s Keeper” Netflix’s 2018 four-part series “Bobby Kennedy for President.”
Henry Louis Gates, Jr., is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. An award-winning filmmaker, literary scholar, journalist, cultural critic, and institution builder, Professor Gates has authored or coauthored twenty-two books and created eighteen documentary films, including Finding Your Roots. His six-part PBS documentary, The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross, earned an Emmy Award for Outstanding Historical Program-Long Form, as well as a Peabody Award, Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award, and NAACP Image Award.
Filmmaker Henry Louis Gates, Jr.