The Central Park Five

In 1989 a woman is attacked in Central Park in New York. Five young men who were in the park that night are taken in; all from Harlem, four Black and one Latino, the youngest fourteen. They are questioned for a long time; no lawyer, no family, no sleep. In the end all five confess on camera. The statements do not agree with one another. The DNA matches none of them. They are convicted anyway. Years later another man in prison says he did it alone, and the DNA matches him. Ken Burns, Sarah Burns and David McMahon direct. The five men speak in the film themselves. It is an American production. Its source is the book Sarah Burns wrote about the case. The matter it treats is how a confession is produced; the interrogation records and the men's own accounts are set side by side. The documentary also examines the press of the time; the language of the newspapers and the full page advertisements affected the course of the case. After it was released the city of New York demanded the filmmakers' footage; they refused and the matter went to court. The five reached a settlement with the city years later. Its limit is balance; the documentary cannot persuade anyone speaking for the prosecution or the police to appear in frame. Who it is for: anyone curious about documentaries on the justice system and American social history. Who it is not for: the subject is heavy, it runs long, and it provokes anger.