BY JACOB "34" KOERTGE • APRIL 20, 2019

Ava DuVernay famously recreated the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches and brought them to life for “Best Picture”-nominated film 50 years later. Selma portrayed the committed fight for civil rights in a way that was real, human, and palpable to the modern issues—beyond most textbooks. The Lynwood, California native next took the 13th Amendment of the United States Constitution and showed how slavery in this country has existed beyond 1865 abolition; it just looks different.

Now, Ava DuVernay is looking at another significant moment in time, The Central Park Five. Her latest dramatic feature, When They See Us, follows the controversial case of five teenagers of color who were convicted of a brutal rape they did not commit. The four-part limited series will focus on the changed lives of five Harlem teens (Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, and Korey Wise). The feature will begin in 1989, when the teenagers were first questioned about the incident. The series spans 25 years, highlighting the five now-grown men’s legal exoneration after extensive incarceration in 2002. It will also portray the settlement that the wrongfully-convicted men reached with the city of New York in 2014.

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