- Welcome to Independent Lens.
I'm Pete Schwaba,
host of PBS Wisconsin's Director's Cut.
Tonight, we bring you a remarkable story
about inner city violence, survival, healing, and forgiveness
in the documentary When Claude Got Shot.
The film takes us to the streets of Milwaukee
and tells the story of how three lives are permanently altered
within a matter of days due to gun violence.
Claude Motley returned to his native Milwaukee
for a class reunion.
Motley, a married father of three and law school student,
left his neighborhood in Milwaukee
for the peaceful suburbs of Charlotte, North Carolina,
and upon his return was shot in the face by a 15-year-old boy
in an attempted carjacking.
Claude Motley survived the shooting
but his road to recovery was riddled with multiple surgeries,
medical bills, marital and family stress,
and the struggle to make sense of the violence he suffered
at the hands of a young boy.
Adding a plot twist to this story,
two days later, the boy who shot Claude, Nathan King,
was shot in an act of self-defense by Victoria Davidson,
confining King to a wheelchair.
Despite only defending herself, Davidson,
a nurse and mother with young children,
struggles to come to terms
with the harm she brought to another human being.
The film also documents Claude's internal struggle
as he is torn between a desire for punishment
and dealing with awareness of the real injustice
of mass incarceration of young Black men.
When Claude Got Shot is directed
by award-winning Milwaukee filmmaker Brad Lichtenstein.
Lichtenstein's film As Goes Janesville was Emmy-nominated
and was also featured on Independent Lens.
Brad previously explored the subject of gun violence
and was nominated for a Peabody Award for his radio series,
Precious Lives.
He's collaborated with other acclaimed documentarians
like Stanley Nelson.
And if these highlights from Lichtenstein's resume
weren't impressive enough,
one of the executive producers for tonight's film:
Snoop Dogg.
Now sit back and lose yourself in this truly incredible story.
When Claude Got Shot starts now on PBS Wisconsin,
your home for independent film.