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While we knew that the Netflix miniseries When They See Us was a huge hit, but what we didn’t know was that more than 23 million accounts streamed the Central Park Five drama.

This was news that brought Ava DuVernay to tears.

“Imagine believing the world doesn’t care about real stories of black people. It always made me sad. So when Netflix just shared with me that 23M+ accounts worldwide have watched #WhenTheySeeUs, I cried. Our stories matter and can move across the globe. A new truth for a new day,” the Oscar-nominated director to tears tweeted on Wednesday.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the 23 million figure would put When They See Us on par with documentary series Our Planet, which Netflix said in April was on track to be viewed by 25 million member accounts in its first month.” The company normally doesn’t provide viewership numbers for its shows and films, but has in the past year been more open about the performances of some its strongest projects.

Of course Black Twitter was excited about this news:

The film captures the infamous 1989 Central Park rape case of how five young Black and Latino boys were coerced into admitting that they were part of a brutal rape that almost left the victim dead. Later, in 2002 Matias Reyes, who was already in prison for rape and murder, came forward and confessed to the crime with DNA confirming he was telling the truth. The convictions for all five men were vacated and in 2014 they were awarded $40 million dollars.

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Ava DuVernay Cried When She Learned That 23 Million People Streamed ‘When They See Us’  was originally published on hellobeautiful.com