Netflix When They See Us
- Thread starter MoeW
- Start date
Watching.
Damn was that Soledad o brien voice?
I think we both wrong. I think I know who's voice it is now but i can't think of her name so I cant look it up
Lou Cypher
The Tokin' White Guy
I'm in
...
Anyone start this yet? I'll start it tonight
K
King Freeman
Guest
20 minutes in I'm already mad af. How ya'll just coexist with motherfuckers like this?
K
King Freeman
Guest
Absolutely disgusting. I gotta tap out.
DOS_patos
Unverified Legion of Trill member
Ava DuVernay Hopes You Hear 'The Heartbeat Of The Boys' In Central Park 5
Filmmaker Ava DuVernay says she receives a couple dozen tweets a day from people asking her to make a movie from their life story. But this #wishfulthinking tweet from Raymond Santana caught her eye:
Santana was one of five teens arrested for the 1989 assault and rape of a white woman in New York's Central Park. The boys were pressured into false confessions and convicted. All served time. A murderer who was already serving a life sentence later confessed to the rape.
DuVernay remembers when it all happened: "I was a teenager on the West Coast when they were teenagers on the East Coast. ... It meant a lot to be asked by them," she says.
Her Netflix miniseries When They See Us will be released Friday. A 2012 documentary called The Central Park Five also explores the wrongful conviction, but DuVernay says "there was more story to tell."
"It was expansive to me," she says. "It was a famous case that allowed me to interrogate all the different parts of the criminal justice system." She sees this miniseries as a "companion piece" to her documentary 13th, which draws a line between slavery and mass incarceration.
Filmmaker Ava DuVernay says she receives a couple dozen tweets a day from people asking her to make a movie from their life story. But this #wishfulthinking tweet from Raymond Santana caught her eye:
Santana was one of five teens arrested for the 1989 assault and rape of a white woman in New York's Central Park. The boys were pressured into false confessions and convicted. All served time. A murderer who was already serving a life sentence later confessed to the rape.
DuVernay remembers when it all happened: "I was a teenager on the West Coast when they were teenagers on the East Coast. ... It meant a lot to be asked by them," she says.
Her Netflix miniseries When They See Us will be released Friday. A 2012 documentary called The Central Park Five also explores the wrongful conviction, but DuVernay says "there was more story to tell."
"It was expansive to me," she says. "It was a famous case that allowed me to interrogate all the different parts of the criminal justice system." She sees this miniseries as a "companion piece" to her documentary 13th, which draws a line between slavery and mass incarceration.
DOS_patos
Unverified Legion of Trill member
The Central Park Five: ‘We Were Just Baby Boys’
The men, whose story will be brought to life in Netflix’s “When They See Us,” discuss the mini-series with their onscreen counterparts.
One morning earlier this month, a group of 10 men and teenage boys gathered for a photo shoot in a small studio on the Lower East Side. The overall mood was chill; as the music of Nipsey Hussle, 50 Cent and Wale filled the room, they chatted amiably in between shots, laughing, joking and moving along to the beats.
The occasion for this gathering was bittersweet: Five of the subjects were Korey Wise, 46; Kevin Richardson, 44; Raymond Santana, 44; Antron McCray, 45; and Yusef Salaam, 45, known collectively as the Central Park Five. Their stories are being retold in “When They See Us,” a new Netflix mini-series created and directed by Ava DuVernay.
In 1989 the men — then teenagers — were arrested in connection with the rape and assault of a white female jogger, and eventually convicted in a case that came to symbolize the stark injustices black and brown people experience within the legal system and in media coverage. They were convicted based partly on police-coerced confessions, and each spent between six and 13-plus years in prison for charges including attempted murder, rape and assault.
The men maintained their innocence throughout the case, trial and prison terms, and all were exonerated after Matias Reyes, a convicted murderer and serial rapist, confessed to the crime in 2002. In 2014, they were awarded a $41 million settlement, though the City of New York denied any wrongdoing.
The other five in the studio that day were the actors tasked with the challenge of portraying their younger selves in the series, premiering May 31: Jharrel Jerome, 21; Asante Blackk, 17; Marquis Rodriguez, 22; Caleel Harris, 15; and Ethan Herisse, 18
As they gathered for a group photo, Wise looked on and observed that they were in the stages of their lives when everything had stopped for him and the other men. “Amazing. Just beautiful looking at them,” he would say later when we sat down for an interview.
He added, “This is life after death. I always say that. From now on I know what Biggie was talking about. There’s life after death.”
In a series of chats, the Central Park Five and their onscreen counterparts discussed the pain, pride and emotional toll of revisiting those fateful events 30 years later. These are edited and condensed excerpts from those conversations.
The men, whose story will be brought to life in Netflix’s “When They See Us,” discuss the mini-series with their onscreen counterparts.
One morning earlier this month, a group of 10 men and teenage boys gathered for a photo shoot in a small studio on the Lower East Side. The overall mood was chill; as the music of Nipsey Hussle, 50 Cent and Wale filled the room, they chatted amiably in between shots, laughing, joking and moving along to the beats.
The occasion for this gathering was bittersweet: Five of the subjects were Korey Wise, 46; Kevin Richardson, 44; Raymond Santana, 44; Antron McCray, 45; and Yusef Salaam, 45, known collectively as the Central Park Five. Their stories are being retold in “When They See Us,” a new Netflix mini-series created and directed by Ava DuVernay.
In 1989 the men — then teenagers — were arrested in connection with the rape and assault of a white female jogger, and eventually convicted in a case that came to symbolize the stark injustices black and brown people experience within the legal system and in media coverage. They were convicted based partly on police-coerced confessions, and each spent between six and 13-plus years in prison for charges including attempted murder, rape and assault.
The men maintained their innocence throughout the case, trial and prison terms, and all were exonerated after Matias Reyes, a convicted murderer and serial rapist, confessed to the crime in 2002. In 2014, they were awarded a $41 million settlement, though the City of New York denied any wrongdoing.
The other five in the studio that day were the actors tasked with the challenge of portraying their younger selves in the series, premiering May 31: Jharrel Jerome, 21; Asante Blackk, 17; Marquis Rodriguez, 22; Caleel Harris, 15; and Ethan Herisse, 18
As they gathered for a group photo, Wise looked on and observed that they were in the stages of their lives when everything had stopped for him and the other men. “Amazing. Just beautiful looking at them,” he would say later when we sat down for an interview.
He added, “This is life after death. I always say that. From now on I know what Biggie was talking about. There’s life after death.”
In a series of chats, the Central Park Five and their onscreen counterparts discussed the pain, pride and emotional toll of revisiting those fateful events 30 years later. These are edited and condensed excerpts from those conversations.
DOS_patos
Unverified Legion of Trill member
Raymond Santana and Marquis Rodriguez
he tweeted the idea of a Central Park Five drama to DuVernay, who messaged him back with interest.
SANTANA Ava was always my choice to do this series. I never met the woman, I didn’t even know who she was, but I’d watched “Selma” — there’s a part where [Martin Luther King, Jr.] is confronted by [his wife] Coretta with recordings [of him with another woman], and I felt like that was bold to put in the film. By showing that, it showed the human side of this man who was put on a pedestal. And it told me that she had no fear of telling the truth.
[Reliving these events] brings back the pain; it brings back the memories. But it’s necessary. I was ready and I was willing to relive, to go through that pain again, to cry — because it’s necessary. It’s a sacrifice. You want to change the culture, you’ve got to be engaged. This is how we got engaged.
RODRIGUEZ That first day at the table read, I was immediately struck by how much of a light you are in a room, how engaged he is when he speaks to people, how bright and smiling and happy. That was one of the most important things for me. Knowing where the story goes, how can I capture, at least for a moment, the levity of his childhood, when it was allowed to be a childhood?
One of my biggest fears as a person of color in this city, in this country is what happened to these men. There’s nothing more terrifying than telling your truth and telling it over and over and over again, but having people refuse to honor it as the truth.
In that scene [when Raymond, Kevin, Yusef and Antron are in the holding cell], you’re literally watching four boys have to work through really adult issues and they decide to tell the truth from there on out. But they shouldn’t have to do that. That should not be their burden, to have to disentangle themselves from adult lies. It’s often children of color’s work.
SANTANA [My father] still probably blames himself, but he doesn’t speak about it. Our relationship is good, but it’s a little different because, as a parent, when you have a child, you want to instill these values and morals on how to navigate through life. And he never got that chance to give me that; I grew up in the system. And then here I was, I come back and now I’m a man who doesn’t want to take orders. And I think that might be the only issue that we still have. I don’t call him and say, “I got this problem, how do I solve it?”
RODRIGUEZ [As a cast] we were vulnerable with each other, we wept with each other and talked about the work with each other. We absolutely formed a brotherhood between us, and I think I’m so grateful for it.
SANTANA I told Marquis just today: We watch them, the way they interact with each other — we really sit there and go, “That’s us.” And Antron, when I said it, he started to tear up. He’s like, “Come on, Ray, man!” You see the brotherhood. We were like, “Wow, that’s us, the childhood that we lost is being displayed right in front of us.”
he tweeted the idea of a Central Park Five drama to DuVernay, who messaged him back with interest.
SANTANA Ava was always my choice to do this series. I never met the woman, I didn’t even know who she was, but I’d watched “Selma” — there’s a part where [Martin Luther King, Jr.] is confronted by [his wife] Coretta with recordings [of him with another woman], and I felt like that was bold to put in the film. By showing that, it showed the human side of this man who was put on a pedestal. And it told me that she had no fear of telling the truth.
[Reliving these events] brings back the pain; it brings back the memories. But it’s necessary. I was ready and I was willing to relive, to go through that pain again, to cry — because it’s necessary. It’s a sacrifice. You want to change the culture, you’ve got to be engaged. This is how we got engaged.
RODRIGUEZ That first day at the table read, I was immediately struck by how much of a light you are in a room, how engaged he is when he speaks to people, how bright and smiling and happy. That was one of the most important things for me. Knowing where the story goes, how can I capture, at least for a moment, the levity of his childhood, when it was allowed to be a childhood?
One of my biggest fears as a person of color in this city, in this country is what happened to these men. There’s nothing more terrifying than telling your truth and telling it over and over and over again, but having people refuse to honor it as the truth.
In that scene [when Raymond, Kevin, Yusef and Antron are in the holding cell], you’re literally watching four boys have to work through really adult issues and they decide to tell the truth from there on out. But they shouldn’t have to do that. That should not be their burden, to have to disentangle themselves from adult lies. It’s often children of color’s work.
SANTANA [My father] still probably blames himself, but he doesn’t speak about it. Our relationship is good, but it’s a little different because, as a parent, when you have a child, you want to instill these values and morals on how to navigate through life. And he never got that chance to give me that; I grew up in the system. And then here I was, I come back and now I’m a man who doesn’t want to take orders. And I think that might be the only issue that we still have. I don’t call him and say, “I got this problem, how do I solve it?”
RODRIGUEZ [As a cast] we were vulnerable with each other, we wept with each other and talked about the work with each other. We absolutely formed a brotherhood between us, and I think I’m so grateful for it.
SANTANA I told Marquis just today: We watch them, the way they interact with each other — we really sit there and go, “That’s us.” And Antron, when I said it, he started to tear up. He’s like, “Come on, Ray, man!” You see the brotherhood. We were like, “Wow, that’s us, the childhood that we lost is being displayed right in front of us.”