Ava DuVernay's "Central Park Five" Netflix Miniseries Renamed, Gets Premiere Date | THR News - video Dailymotion

Ava DuVernay and Netflix have renamed their limited series centered on the Central Park Five case to 'When They See Us.'

Transcript

00:00Ava DuVernay's limited Netflix series, which examines the wrongful conviction of the young

00:04men dubbed The Central Park Five, has been given a new name, When They See Us.

00:08According to Oscar nominee DuVernay, the new title embraces the humanity of the men

00:12and not their politicized moniker. The highly anticipated four-part miniseries,

00:16told From the Perspective of the Five Men, will debut on Netflix on May 31.

00:20On Friday, DuVernay posted an official sneak peek of the project to her Twitter account

00:24with the caption,

00:25not thugs, not wilding, not criminals, not even The Central Park Five. They are Corey,

00:30Antron, Raymond, Yousef, Kevin. They are millions of young people of color who are blamed,

00:36judged and accused on sight. May 31, a film in four parts about who they really are,

00:41When They See Us.

00:43The release of the project comes 30 years since the case which gripped the nation, in which

00:47then 28-year-old Trisha Miley was brutally raped, beaten and left for dead in Central Park

00:51while going on her nightly run.

00:53Antron McRae, Kevin Richardson, Yousef Salam, Raymond Santana and Corey Wise were wrongfully

00:58convicted of the crime and dubbed the Central Park Five by the media.

01:01The men were finally freed in 2002 after more than a decade behind bars when DNA evidence

01:06proved they were not responsible for the attack. The limited series name change is an attempt

01:10to break the men free from the incriminating moniker they've had to endure for so long.

01:14When They See Us will center on the five teenagers from Harlem and will span 25 years

01:18beginning in the spring of 1989, when the teenagers are first questioned about the incident,

01:22and through their 2002 exoneration and 2014 settlement reach with the city of New York.

01:27Michael K. Williams, Vera Farmiga, John Leguizamo and Felicity Huffman are among the

01:34impressive list of actors that will appear in the series.

01:37In a statement made Friday, DuVernay said,

01:39In 1989, five black and brown teen boys were wrongly accused of a crime they did not commit

01:43and branded the Central Park Five a moniker that has followed them since that time.

01:47In 2019, our series gives the five men a platform to finally raise their voices and tell their

01:52full stories. She continued,

01:54In doing so, Cory, Antron, Raymond, Kevin and Youssef also tell the story of many young people

02:00of color unjustly ensnared in the criminal justice system.

02:03This is DuVernay's second project at Netflix after 2016's Oscar-nominated documentary feature

02:0813th, which focuses on the devastating effects of mass incarceration of black men,

02:12or modern-day slavery as DuVernay calls it, in America today.

02:15To read more on this story, head to THR.com.

02:17For The Hollywood Reporter News, I'm Lyndsey Rodrigues.