The Central Park Five

In April 1989, five black and Hispanic teenagers from Harlem were arrested for the brutal assault and rape of a white woman in Central Park. The youths confessed and were sentenced to long prison terms. While the last of them was still incarcerated, a serial rapist also serving time admitted that he - and he alone - had committed the crime against the Central Park Jogger, as the victim was referred to in the media. gives a detailed reconstruction of the crime and the punishments meted out. The City of New York refused to cooperate with the making of the film, but the accused speak freely in front of the camera (except for one, who can be heard on tape but who didn't want to be filmed). Jump cuts create an energetic narrative rhythm, and archive footage illustrates the highly inflammatory media coverage, typified by premature and prejudicial reactions. Mayor Ed Koch, Governor Mario Cuomo and businessman Donald Trump stoked the flames, and these were fanned further by the atmosphere of wild criminality that characterized New York in those days. In hindsight, it is amazing how easily the five young men were convicted: none of them could possibly have been at that place at that time, and no DNA matches were found on the unconscious victim (who after recovering remembered nothing of the attack). All of this raises serious issues concerning the criminal investigation and the American justice system, where getting to the truth seems subordinate to making an emotional impact.