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The Ava DuVernay/Netflix Suit No One Talks About

Inside the complex libel fight over the portrayal of Linda Fairstein, the prosecutor-turned-novelist, in the acclaimed Central Park Five film, ‘When They See Us.’ Could this impact the streamers’ risk tolerance, and the future of docudramas?

A federal judge has ordered Netflix to trial over Ava DuVernay’s ‘When They See Us,’ a 2019 docudrama about the notorious Central Park jogger case.
A federal judge has ordered Netflix to trial over Ava DuVernay’s ‘When They See Us,’ a 2019 docudrama about the notorious Central Park jogger case. Photo: Ernesto Ruscio/Getty Images
Eriq Gardner
September 25, 2023

You’d think that in the wake of the Dominion lawsuit, which cost Fox News $787 million, Hollywood would be more sensitive to high-stakes libel showdowns. And yet, this past week, hardly anyone seemed bothered by a federal judge ordering Netflix to trial over Ava DuVernay’s When They See Us, a 2019 docudrama about the notorious Central Park jogger case. Astonishingly, the defamation case barely made a blip on the radar, perhaps as B-matter amid the concluding labor unrest, and the few news outlets that did report on it treated it as nothing out of the ordinary.