Log In Register

Central Park Five, The 1x117, 2x54

“A careful, thoughtful and devastating new documentary.” — Los Angeles Times

The Central Park Five is a riveting documentary. The filmmaking is simple and seamless.” — The Atlantic

Central Park is perhaps the most devastating portrait of contemporary social inequality to appear in an American documentary.” — The New Yorker

“Watching The Central Park Five is a deeply affecting experience.” — The Wall Street Journal

Official Selection, Cannes Film Festival 2012
New York Film Critics Circle Best Non-Fiction Film (Documentary)
Official Selection: Telluride Film Festival 2012
Official Selection: Toronto International Film Festival 2012
Special Presentation: Cannes Film Festival 2012
Closing Night Selection: DOCNYC 2012
Peabody Award Winner 2013

In 1989, five black and Latino teenagers from Harlem were arrested and later convicted of raping a white woman in New York City’s Central Park. They spent between six and thirteen years in prison before a serial rapist confessed that he alone had committed the crime, leading to their convictions being overturned. Set against a backdrop of a decaying city beset by violence and racial tension, The Central Park Five tells the story of that horrific crime, the rush to judgment by the police, a media clamoring for sensational stories, an outraged public, and the five lives upended by this miscarriage of justice. Written, produced and directed by Ken Burns, Dave McMahon, and Sarah Burns.