Director seeks to do justice to Lewis’ epic life
San Francisco filmmaker Dawn Porter calls John Lewis “the most optimistic person I’ve ever met.” And that’s an astounding statement given all the 80yearold U.S. representative has seen on the front lines of the decadeslong fight for civil rights and racial justice in this country.
Porter’s new documentary “John Lewis: Good Trouble,” which premieres Friday, July 3, is an intimate and exceedingly timely portrait of Lewis that shows him as a tenacious fighter for a just cause, but also patient in the knowledge that the path to justice is long and never straight.
Lewis is proud to have been arrested 40 times in the 1960s and has been called the “conscience of the Congress,” in which he has represented Georgia’s Fifth District since 1987.
Porter first got to know Lewis while filming “Gideon’s Army” (2013) and her Netflix miniseries “Bobby Kennedy for President” (2018). Her new film focuses not only on Lewis’ heroic activism, but also on his gentler side — as a sibling, a friend, a mentor, an art lover and a man with a great sense of humor despite the many tough battles he has waged.
Porter spoke by phone with The Chronicle about the joy of showing Lewis’ neverbeforeseen archival footage and just how timely his message is as the nation is again convulsing for change.
Q: How daunting was the challenge of making a documentary that would humanize a living legend?
A: Several things go through your mind. One is, “How do you do justice to such a magnificent life?”
Also, with each of my films, I try to find an animating principle, and with this one it became that John Lewis has lived a lifetime of service. So many people are familiar with his early civil rights activity, but I wanted them to understand that this is a lifetime calling. He’s someone who used to be on the outside demanding change of the Congress and is now on the inside working for change. That’s a really important lesson, that to actually implement lasting change you need the activists to push, but then you need the legislators to act.
I love how his life is so full circle in that regard.
Q: His unwavering belief in nonviolence is a powerful theme throughout the film, and it’s instructive seeing him and other young activists in 1960 actually learning in workshops how to protest nonviolently to desegregate Nashville. You show that it’s a learned skill, not just an idealistic belief, which seems really relevant today.
A: That was absolutely one of the most important parts of the film for me. Everyone thinks of John Lewis and the other civil rights activists as being brave, but they were also strategic. They were trained to withstand being brutalized. Watching those young people intentionally allow themselves to be subjected to such inhumane treatment and sticking by those principles deeply affected me.
Bernard Lafayette says something to the effect of, “We kept giving them the opportunity to change.” What a beautiful way to think of their work. Instead of being angry, we’re giving you the opportunity to be better.
Today’s civil rights movements are still giving all of us that same opportunity.
Q: We hear Lewis in one scene say, “Dawn, I’m seeing footage I’ve never seen before.” Why did you want to show him reacting in real time to images from his own past?
A: I was just coming off doing the Netflix series “Bobby Kennedy for President,” and I have this great archivist, Rich Remsberg, who kept coming across all of these gems, including some of the Nashville footage. Then, we were in Alabama at the (National Voting
Rights) Museum, and John Lewis comes upon this exhibit that’s about him. He stops and watches it, and then casually says to a teenager next to him, “I can’t believe that’s me.” And he started telling a story that I had never heard.
It got me thinking, “What if I compiled the footage we’ve found and show it to him?”
So we rented a theater in Washington, constructed three oversize screens, dimmed the lights, put him in the middle of it and just had him watch. I would ask him to tell me the story of those days and he’d respond. It was really powerful.
Q: Have you talked to him since George Floyd’s killing? Do you have a sense of how he’s processing this moment?
A: Yes, we did a couple of interviews together, and he’s really proud of the way the response to George Floyd’s killing reflects what he believes — that most people are good and that protest is meaningful and important.
He is always careful to say he believes strongly in nonviolence, but he also understands the anger that can lead to a different choice. That would not be his choice, but he understands the rage.
I think he wants to encourage people to take action that is meaningful and longlasting. His message is, “OK, now you’re activated. Now what? What’s next? Let’s get to work. Let’s be the change we want.”
Jessica Zack is a Bay Area freelance writer.