I Want You To See Them

With her new TV series on the so-called Central Park Five, AVA DUVERNAY wants to do more than tell a timely true story—she wants to hold up a mirror to America.

- Judnick Mayard

THE TEMPERATURE IN Southern California is well above 80 degrees. It’s the warmest day of the year so far—the kind of Sunday in spring that inspires a frenzy of optimism for the long, hazy days of summer to come. But right before I sit down with producer and director Ava DuVernay and the cast of her new Netflix series, When They See Us, the mood changes. News breaks that Nipsey Hussle has been shot in South Los Angeles.

After the shock of the initial report, it’s DuVernay herself who shares word that the rapper—whom she knows as a close family friend—has succumbed to his wounds. There is a collective moment of silence; the air fills with a profound sorrow, and she steps out of the room for a bit. Near tears, I am reminded of the bright, beautiful weather outside and of the ominous hood proverb: Folks act crazy when it’s hot outside.

The very first scene of When They See Us also takes place on a warm April day, though in Harlem in 1989. Five boys join a large group of neighborhood kids on their way to Central Park, and what follows becomes a matter of national news. The boys—Raymond Santana Jr. (played by Freddy Miyares), Kevin Richardson (Justin Cunningham), Antron McCray (Jovan Adepo), Yusef Salaam (Chris Chalk), and Korey Wise (Jharrel Jerome)—are wrongly ensnared in a sensational investigation after a young white female jogger is found raped and left for dead. The boys come to be known as the Central Park Five, and their lives change forever.