Following her superb Academy Award-nominated documentary 13th, and her upcoming A Wrinkle In Time, Ava DuVernay‘s star continues to rise as she’s now signed on to team up once again with Netflix, this time for a mini-series based on the infamous Central Park Five.
In New York in 1989, a jogger was raped in Central Park, with five juvenile men – four black, one hispanic – being arrested for the crime. It was later discovered that their confessions were coerced, they were totally innocent and ended up spending 6 to 13 years in prison for a crime they didn’t commit. They later sued the city of New York and in 2014, settled for $41 million.
There’s already an informative documentary titled The Central Park Five that covers the basics of the case well, but hopefully DuVernay, with the time she’s afforded within a mini-series, will be able to create something that’s able to deeply examine the many facets of this tragedy; namely race, corruption and capital punishment – at the time, Donald Trump took out a full page ad calling for the boys’ execution.
DuVernay spoke about the project in a press release:
“I had an extraordinary experience working with Netflix on 13th and am overjoyed to continue this exploration of the criminal justice system as a narrative project with Cindy Holland and the team there.
The story of the men known as Central Park Five has riveted me for more than two decades. In their journey, we witness five innocent young men of color who were met with injustice at every turn – from coerced confessions to unjust incarceration to public calls for their execution by the man who would go on to be the President of the United States”.
There’s been plenty of mini-series recently that have examined criminal justice and/or race – Making A Murderer, The Jinx, O.J.: Made In America – and all have been met with critical acclaim. Netflix will give DuVernay all the freedom in the world to make her best version of the project, and hopefully it’ll be the most powerful and emotional work of her oeuvre thus far.
#Peace.Love.CentralParkFive
