Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, known for his portrail of war, baseball, and even jazz music, has a new documentary project that is getting him into some hot water in New York City. Burns recently made a film called The Central Park Five, about a group of men that were wrongly arrested, charged, and convicted of raping a woman in New York City's Central Park back in 1989. The men, who were boys at the time, just happened to be causing mischief in the wrong place at the wrong time. Deputies arrested all 5 of them and somehow got confessions out of them which lead to their conviction. Later, another man confessed to the crime and his DNA was linked to the sexual offense.
So why is NYC so upset with Burns? Well the wrongly convicted men are suing the state for more than $5 million. The city wants Ken Burns to turn over all of his video footage from the film including unaired portions of the interviews so that they can use it to defend themselves. Now here's where things get a little tricky. Burns is claiming that he made this film as a documentary and is protected by New York State's shield laws which would allow journalists to keep their sources confidential. The city is claiming that this film was not a protected documentary but instead was an advocacy film intended to free the men. Brendan Spaar has not seen the film but is interested to see how this one plays out. Burns appears to have had a bias toward the innocence of the men and may not have been objective in the making of his film. But don't most documentary filmmakers have a bias when making their film?
So why is NYC so upset with Burns? Well the wrongly convicted men are suing the state for more than $5 million. The city wants Ken Burns to turn over all of his video footage from the film including unaired portions of the interviews so that they can use it to defend themselves. Now here's where things get a little tricky. Burns is claiming that he made this film as a documentary and is protected by New York State's shield laws which would allow journalists to keep their sources confidential. The city is claiming that this film was not a protected documentary but instead was an advocacy film intended to free the men. Brendan Spaar has not seen the film but is interested to see how this one plays out. Burns appears to have had a bias toward the innocence of the men and may not have been objective in the making of his film. But don't most documentary filmmakers have a bias when making their film?
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