Dawn Porter had a very successful 2025 Realscreen Summit this week. She was presented with the Action Award at the Realscreen Awards ceremony where she was graciously introduced by her longtime friend Rob Sharenow who is currently serving as the President of Programming for A+E Networks.

The following day, Dawn’s documentary Edge of Daybreak was announced. Premiering later this year, the documentary follows inmates at a maximum-security prison in Richmond, Virginia, who formed the R&B band Edge of Daybreak. Inside the prison, they recorded eight original songs but their album remained obscure for nearly 40 years. After their release, the music was rediscovered, with one track featuring in the Oscar-winning film Moonlight. Trailblazer worked with Dawn and her Trilogy Films team to provide post and music supervision as well as picture finishing and audio post for the film.

Also on Day 2 of the conference, Dawn was interviewed by inaugural Action Award winner Bree Frank where she was able to share insights about her journey as a documentary filmmaker and on the state of the documentary business at this time.