By Lindsey Bahr, Film Reporter
LOS ANGELES (AP) --Netflix is made for bingeing, but filmmaker Ava DuVernay thinks that audiences should watch her Central Park Five miniseries "When They See Us " at their own pace.
The four-part series explores the true story of five black and Latino teenagers from Harlem who were coerced into confessing to a rape they didn't commit in 1989 and follows them over the course of 25 years. It's currently available to Netflix subscribers.
DuVernay said the viewing experience will be different for everyone.
"I think it really is going to depend on where you are politically and culturally," she said in an interview last month.
"For some people this is all going to be new, like, 'Wait, what?' And for other people it's deeply felt because they've experienced it in their lives as people of color or people who faced injustice."
While many might choose to watch all five hours in one sitting, the "Selma" filmmaker knows that method might now work for all.
"I shared it with a bunch of people and some people really need to take breaks after and some people want to power through," DuVernay said.
She experienced something similar when her Oscar-nominated prison system documentary "13th" hit the streaming service in 2016.
"There were people that couldn't watch that straight through and it was only 100 minutes," she said. "But Netflix gives you the luxury of being able to do it in a space and at a time when you're comfortable. It's always there. And I think that's what this offering is. Hopefully people will engage with it where and when they want."
The storytelling itself is intended to be a little unconventional, even for people immersed in true crime stories. DuVernay wanted to blend aspects of the "crime drama" and the "family drama" genres to "really dig into truth and justice."
"A lot of the crime dramas deal with the sensational element. They deal with the spectacle of the crime, the spectacle of the loss. Family dramas usually have nuance or are a bit slower," she said. "I tried to put those together in a way that I don't feel I've seen a lot of, especially applied to black people."
She also hopes that those inclined to watch things like "The Night Of" and "Making a Murderer" will want to dig into this story in a similar way.
"This is true. This is real. This has political repercussions. Can we apply that genre of the crime drama that's become so popular now and in the limited series format and apply that to a case that has real world stakes even now?" DuVernay said.
"I don't know what the answer is. We'll see."
Jennifer Kent On Why Her Feature Directing Debut, “The Babadook,” Continues To Haunt Us
"The Babadook," when it was released 10 years ago, didn't seem to portend a cultural sensation.
It was the first film by a little-known Australian filmmaker, Jennifer Kent. It had that strange name. On opening weekend, it played in two theaters.
But with time, the long shadows of "The Babadook" continued to envelop moviegoers. Its rerelease this weekend in theaters, a decade later, is less of a reminder of a sleeper 2014 indie hit than it is a chance to revisit a horror milestone that continues to cast a dark spell.
Not many small-budget, first-feature films can be fairly said to have shifted cinema but Kent's directorial debut may be one of them. It was at the nexus of that much-debated term "elevated horror." But regardless of that label, it helped kicked off a wave of challenging, filmmaker-driven genre movies like "It Follows," "Get Out" and "Hereditary."
Kent, 55, has watched all of this — and those many "Babadook" memes — unfold over the years with a mix of elation and confusion. Her film was inspired in part by the death of her father, and its horror elements likewise arise out of the suppression of emotions. A single mother (Essie Davis) is struggling with raising her young son (Noah Wiseman) years after the tragic death of her husband. A figure from a pop-up children's book begins to appear. As things grow more intense, his name is drawn out in three chilling syllables — "Bah-Bah-Doooook" — an incantation of unprocessed grief.
Kent recently spoke from her native Australia to reflect on the origins and continuing life of "The Babadook."
Q: Given that you didn't set out to in any way "change" horror, how have you regarded the unique afterlife of "The... Read More