Selma director Ava DuVernay is turning her attention to one of the most notorious and racially charged chapters in New York City history.
The filmmaker is teaming with Netflix on a five-episode mini-series about the so-called Central Park Five, a group of black teens who were wrongfully convicted of raping and brutally beating a jogger in 1989.
Each episode will center around one of the teens — Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana and Korey Wise — spanning from the spring of that year through their 2014 exoneration.
The defendants spent between 6 and 13 years in prison until another man came forward to confess in 2002, with DNA evidence confirming his account. Critics blasted the city of New York and the NYPD for allegedly railroading a conviction and zeroing in on the five based on racial stereotyping.
“The story of the men known as Central Park Five has riveted me for more than two decades,” DuVernay said in a statement.
“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.”
DuVernay launched her acclaimed documentary, 13TH, about the history of the mass incarceration of African American men in the United States, to the streaming site last year.
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