Ava DuVernay Talks The Central Park Five, ”When They See Us” and Donald Trump: ”He’s An Opportunist”

On May 31, Ava DuVernay’s Four-Part Miniseries “When They See Us” will premiere on Netflix.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

The miniseries is about the Central Park Five case that divided New York City in 1989 and sparked one of the first moments of racially charged and politically divisive grandstanding by Donald Trump.

Now, DuVernay is retelling the story Of the Five black and brown teenage boys who were wrongfully accused and convicted of the brutal rape of a white woman, who had been jogging in Central Park one warm April evening.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

The series deals with ideas she’s been marinating on for years. Ideas about race, criminal justice, and ultimately who gets the power to write history.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

DuVernay, who was a junior in high school in Compton at the time of the incident, remembered the disconnect in the case as the media vilified the young men using terminology like “wilding” and referring to them as a “wolfpack.

As DuVernay told the Hollywood Reporter, she was struck by the misreporting of slang the boys in the case used — “wilin’ out” was reported as “wilding.”

“Sometimes ‘wilin’ out’ just means you’re hanging out,” DuVernay says. “Sometimes it means you’re out just having fun. It certainly doesn’t mean you’re raping people. The fact that wilin’ became wilding, became wolf pack, became these boys are animals. … I remember for the first time realizing that the news might not be true, that the news is something that you have to really think about and question.”

Long before 24-hour news channels shaped the public’s consciousness, this case polarized New York City, and one newsmaker led the charge. Donald Trump, who through actual news footage, is featured prominently throughout the story.  Trump fed the racist hysteria in the case, taking out ads in four daily  City newspapers calling for the reinstatement of the death penalty in this case.  ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

In fact, when Trump was asked about the case during his presidential campaign, according to the Hollywood Reporter, he still held fast to his belief that the five young men, who had since been completely exonerated were still guilty. At the time, he told CNN, “They admitted they were guilty.” (The boys’ confessions were ruled false and coerced.)

In 1989, Trump waded into the case because “it made him feel like a player and important,” DuVernay says. “Press conferences ensued. He was on CNN. Those are all the things that we know he wanted at that time. By doing this, he got quite a bit of attention and still is getting it for doing the same kinds of things. I don’t think it was for any real desire to seek justice for Trisha Meili, because if he did feel that way he would have sought it for [Brett Kavanaugh accuser] Christine Blasey Ford. It was an opportunity, and he’s an opportunist.”

The Oscar-nominated director stumbled across the project via twitter when one of the men Raymond Santana, tweeted her back in 2015 asking what her next film project was going to be. From that tweet, a relationship with the Central Park Five and DuVernay was formed, and she vowed to tell their story.

DuVernay is no stranger to critically probing into the criminal justice system. Her Oscar-nominated 2016 documentary “13th” touched on a direct correlation between the institution of slavery and the mass incarceration of black men.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

However, her political engagement extends beyond her company. She has been an active voice on policy issues including Alabama’s recent abortion bill, about which she tweeted:⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

”Don’t move forward after reading this like everything is normal. Don’t shake your head at Alabama and then keep going about your day. Realize that this is a warning. It’s Alabama and abortion today. It’s you and your rights tomorrow.”⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

Duvernay is using her reach and her platforms to tell stories about the lasting effects of the fractures in this country’s justice system, opening her own downtown L.A. Studio and aiding in creating a modern Hollywood empire.

As her companies grow, she is grappling with just how hands-on she should be with her projects. “I remember sitting next to Steven Spielberg at a dinner at J.J.’s, and I asked him, ‘Your name is on a lot of projects. How do you do this?’ ” DuVernay says. “He said something to me like, ‘You can’t think that you’re going to do it all because your name is on it.’ That’s been more challenging for me.”