“What I Didn’t Know,” a short film from The Innocence Project released in December 2025, takes an in-depth look at the profound challenges of reintegration after wrongful incarceration. It features exonerees Renay Lynch, Jabar Walker, and Paul Hildwin, who discuss rebuilding lives, managing PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder), and finding resilience after combined decades in prison.
“What I Didn’t Know” follows the non-profit organization’s award-winning first anthem, Happiest Moments, which earned both Webby and Anthem Awards for emotionally capturing both the moments Innocence Project clients missed as a result of decades of wrongful incarceration and the joy of having their freedom restored.
Narrated by Innocence Project Ambassador and actor Joe Morton, “What I Didn’t Know” covers the complex reality of freedom, including navigating daily tasks, addressing trauma from lost time with family, and the ongoing struggle to live again after wrongful conviction. It also highlights the challenges, big and small, that people face once they return to their communities to resume their lives: securing housing, finding a doctor or a dentist, getting identification, driver’s licenses, bank accounts, and other basic needs that can be an overwhelming minefield for newly freed and exonerated people.
“The first few days weren’t good for me. The picture I had in my mind of what freedom would look like wasn’t it,” said Walker, who was exonerated after 25 years in New York in November 2023.
“I applied for a replacement social security card. They denied me; twice. My family was gone. I had nothing,” said Paul Hildwin, who was freed in March 2020 after a 35-year struggle for justice in Florida.
“I didn’t know I had the strength and the courage to speak out. I honestly didn’t realize I had that in me,” said Lynch, who was exonerated after nearly 26 years in Buffalo, New York in January 2024.
Most importantly, the film is a tribute to the grace and resilience of the freed and exonerated community, and of the inner strength that carried them through often decades of prison and what they learned about themselves after release.
