Ava DuVernay Does True Crime Differently in<em> When They See Us</em>
The director’s Netflix series asserts the individual stories of the so-called Central Park Five.
The loss of innocence is a theme that writers can take entire novels to documentAva DuVernay manages the same feat in fewer than eight minutes. That’s all the time it takes in for five kids to tussle with parents over Yankees loyalty, cajole girlfriends into accompanying them to Kennedy Fried Chicken, and tell sisters about their audacious plans to make first trumpet in the school band. One minute, Kevin Richardson (played by Asante Blackk) is gently placing a blanket over his mother who’s asleep on the couch, the room around him glowing a warm, protective orange. The next, he’s in the stark blue cold of Central Park, a tiny figure in
