By: Janice Malone
THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE, a new film from award-winning filmmaker Ken Burns, will air on April 16, 2013, 8–10 p.m. Nashville time on WPNT-TV. The film tells the story of the five black and Latino teenagers from Harlem who were wrongly convicted of raping a white woman in New York City’s Central Park in 1989. Directed and produced by Burns, David McMahon and Sarah Burns, the film chronicles the Central Park Jogger case, for the first time from the perspective of the five teenagers whose lives were upended by this miscarriage of justice. The five served their complete sentences, between 6 and 13 years, before another man, serial rapist Matias Reyes, admitted to the crime, and DNA testing supported his confession. In 2002, based upon Matias Reyes’s confession, a judge vacated the original convictions of the Central Park Five. A year later, the men filed civil lawsuits against the City of New York, and the police officers and prosecutors who had worked toward their conviction. That lawsuit remains unresolved.
The day after the Central Park Five film’s broadcast, on April 17, from 5:30 – 7:00 pm Nashville time, viewers will have an opportunity to continue the conversation with “Justice and The Central Park Five,” a live TimesTalks discussion hosted by The New York Times. Participants will include Ken and Sarah Burns, Jim Dwyer, the New York Times columnist who covered the Central Park Jogger case and is featured in the film, and the five exonerated men. The event will be streamed live online at nytimes.com/cityroom and you can follow the conversation on Twitter using #cp5. The full film will also be streamed online at http://video.pbs.org/ through May 1, 2013.
The Tennessee Tribune was granted the opportunity to speak exclusively with film makers Ken Burns and his daughter Sarah, about the making of their latest film THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE.
TRIBUNE: Sarah in 2011 you wrote the book “The Central Park Five: A Chronicle of a City Wilding,” that was based on the Central Park Five incident. What came first for you, writing the book or doing the film?
S.BURNS: “The book came first. I first learned about this story back in 2003. I was too young to know and understand the full details about the case when it first happened back in 1989. When I learned about the case and the story I was a college student. I ended up writing my undergraduate thesis about the case. So I’ve been working on telling this story for a decade now. After school, I then started working on the book, which was released in 2011. After the book we then started on the film. It’s such an important film because allows us to interview the Central Park 5 men and let the audience get to know them as individuals.”
TRIBUNE: Ken your film’s been in the news quite a lot within recent weeks regarding the court triumph that you guys won regarding not having to turn over the outtakes of your film over to authorities. Share with us the details on this.
K. BURNS: “In 2003 the Central Park Five launched a civil suit against the city of New York. The process of settling that suit has been lengthy and drawn out for almost a decade. We became involved when the city requested that we give them our film outtakes and notes. It’s sort of ironic that we spent many years trying to get police and prosecutors to comment for our film, which they always refused and would often not return our calls. But now all of a sudden they’re claiming this kind of bias to our film and their right to see what else we have—a real kind of ‘fishing’ expedition of sorts. But fortunately a judge did not see it their way and squashed the subpoena. The city of New York has now appealed that move, so we don’t know how long this process will continue. Our desire is not to have things distracted by the immediate things that were happening with this ordeal but to keep the focus on what’s been happening with the young men from the Central Park Five and this incredible saga in which they’ve experienced of 13 years of justice that’s been obviously denied and now another 10 years of justice delayed with this civil suit..” We have no stake in what the settlement might be at all. We want to see the completion of all of this. We just think it will be good for the city of New York, the prosecutors, and the police who made the errors, to admit it. Sort of like a truth in reconciliation of what they’ve done, and by doing so it helps all of us as citizens.”
TRIBUNE: This was a very painful film to watch at times. What were some of the challenges that you guys faced as film makers when doing this project?
K. BURNS: “This film was particularly sensitive, in large part because the film is so difficult. It is so painful, in large part because as you’re watching all of the different moments when they could’ve found out something else. They could have entertained an alternative narrative; they could have walked the DNA over from that case to this case and certainly found the boys were exonerated without having to go into jail for 13 years. So for us as film makers it was just trying to tell the facts. We just wanted to try to make sure that we were as journalistically pure. There’s no narration in this film, which is rare with the films we’ve made. We’ve permitted the story to just unfold by bringing out two fundamental questions: How could something like this happen? And who are these five who were denied a voice during the original proceedings? They needed to be given or allowed to speak and express themselves years later. I’ll let Sarah add to this as well.”
S. BURNS: “I would say the one of the biggest challenges as far as the process was the fact that several times we asked the police and prosecutors that were involved in the case to give us some interviews, as my dad mentioned earlier. They always refused. We had hoped to be able to represent their perspective from these interviews. Since we couldn’t do that, we were then faced with the challenge of trying to find their perspective on this case elsewhere.”
TRIBUNE: Many who have seen The Central Park Five film have said the film should be required viewing in schools, especially law schools, by students of all races. Will the film be shown in various schools?
K. BURNS: “Yes, that will happen. Thanks to our relationship with PBS have always had a robust educational outreach. The sheer demand of interest about this film has kept us out on the road promoting it. We, along with members of the Central Park Five, recently made an appearance at Harvard Law School, where we had an overflow crowd. The Central Park Five young men have also made appearances to speak at various schools as well.”
TRIBUNE: A few years ago the woman who was assaulted and raped in this case, Trisha Meili (known to many as the Central Park jogger) wrote the book, I Am the Central Park Jogger: A Story of Hope and Possibility. Did you guys speak with her during the making of this film?
S. BURNS: “We reached out and spoke to her in the early stages of making the film, and asked her would she grant us an interview? I think we all understand on why she declined. We don’t know if she’s seen the film or made any comments about it at this time.”
TRIBUNE: Unfortunately, this is reality and this story really has no happy ending for everyone concerned.
K.BURNS: “It may take a long time for this to have a so-called happy ending. In 1989, to be a member of the Central Park Five was to be among the most hated and reviled human beings on earth. But by 2002, when their convictions were vacated, to be a member of the Central Park Five was to be in a kind of limbo situation. Some people thought they got off on a technicality and weren’t quite sure what really happened. But over the course of the 10 years as we’ve gotten to know these young men and as they’ve had the chance to find and express their voice, to me, these young men are now in a heroic number. They’re a group of young people who’ve faced adversity with affirmation. Even though they still suffer from some of the pain, they’ve managed to transcend some of it. But non-the-less they’re exemplars. One hopes that eventually, with resolution that a happy ending will finally come. But unfortunately, they will of course never be able to reclaim the childhood that was stolen from them.”
To get an update on what the Central Park Five young men are now doing and how this tragedy has affected them and their families tune in April 16, 2013, 8–10 p.m. Nashville time on WNPT-TV.
Tune in to Film Festival Radio Show. To hear the complete exclusive interview of Ken and Sarah Burns tune in Friday (April 12th) at 6:00pm. Click on this link at 6pm to hear the interview in its entirety: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/film-festival-radio-/2013/03/13/film-makers-ken-and-sarah-burns