The Witmans is a 15-minute documentary that follows two parents, Ron and Sue Witman, as they make their weekly drive across Pennsylvania to visit their son Zachary. They visit him in prison, where he has lived for ten years since being convicted of the murder of his younger brother. This brutal incident took place at the Witman’s house in 1998, when Gregory’s throat was slit, and he was nearly beheaded. The parents fiercely believe in their remaining son’s innocence, despite a community and justice system that does not agree. What does it take to continue living after losing both of your two sons?
As a statistic, the Witman’s are an anomaly. The vast majority of couples separate or divorce after the loss of a child. The Witman’s have lost two, and have remained together for 14 years, still inhabiting the house in which the murder took place, still walking through the hallway in which their 13 year old son lost his life. This film will establish an atmosphere unlike anything the average person will ever know; a world in which optimism, hope, and life have been confined to a prison cell four and a half hours to the west. The Witmans will show themselves to be two of the most extraordinary individuals an audience member has ever met, living in a world of grief that doesn’t wash them away simply because of the dwindling hope that they may somehow be able to reassemble what’s left of their family.