Brittney Griner, Ta-Nehisi Coates show freed prisoners in Sundance films

Three time Olympic Gold medalist Brittney Griner is the subject of a Sundance Film Festival Documentary about her imprisonment in Russia. Photo: TownLift // Michele Roepke

PARK CITY, Utah — Two Sundance documentary premieres in one day asked audiences to sit with the lasting weight of incarceration and the lives reshaped by it. One followed three men wrongfully imprisoned as teenagers, freed only after spending nearly four decades behind bars. The other traced the public and private aftermath of WNBA player Brittney Griner’s detention in Russia

Ta-Nehisi Coates was a cast/narrator and executive producer in “When A Witness Recants” and Brittney Griner was the cast/subject of “The Brittney Griner Story” about her experience being imprisoned in Russia.

“The Brittney Griner Story”

The interview below begins when the three-time Olympic gold medalist is asked her thoughts on the status of participation from Olympic athletes representing Russia and the rulings from the IOC therein.

The interview concludes with Griner fan-girling out, like most of the buzz around Park City including a discussion TownLift had with a representative from GLAAD , about meeting Olympic ambassador Billie Jean King 24 hours prior.

President Joe Biden, CBS’s Gayle King, and Griner’s wife and an executive producer on the film, Cherelle Griner, were all interviewed in the film.

Standing out among the rest of the filmmakers in this red carpet photo, global basketball star Griner was happy to have them all attending the Sundance Film Festival.

Griner stood up before the screening started in the Ray Theater to an excited audience that applauded her presence.

“When A Witness Recants”

At the Library Theater venue later that afternoon, Ta-Nehisi Coates appeared alongside his wife, Kenyatta Matthews, an executive producer on the film, and Kamilah Forbes, also an executive producer.

Coates is a is a world-renowned author, journalist, and educator known for works exploring race, history, and American culture. He is widely considered the unofficial poet laureate of the President Obama era.

Below are the three freed innocent prisoners who were jailed as high schoolers in Baltimore for a the shooting death of a fellow student. Right to left – Alfred Chestnut, Andrew Stewart, and Ransom Watkins.

The film’s director, Dawn Porter, reflects on this being Sundance’s last year in Park City, and on how interesting it is that the random assignment of film venues resulted in famed book author Coates’ premiere occurred in the Park City Public Library. 

Then State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby and current State Attorney Lauren Lipscomb joined the Q&A, which follows each Sundance showing, joined by some of the three freed mens’ wives and mothers. The legal dynamic duo was instrumental in their exonerations. They answered questions about how not to let scenes like this happen again in the future and what civil steps people can take.

In this clip, the crowd applauds and gives a standing ovation for not just the film, but also remarks made regarding today’s political climate.

All photos/video: TownLift // Michele Roepke