-(CROWD SCREAMS) -OFFICER: Go! Move, move, move!
DMZ
But in our saga, it is a sinister place
where all of the rebels reside.
DMZ
You have one part of the country
that's controlled by the military,
another part of the country that's controlled
by the free states of America.
And in the middle is Manhattan Island.
And it's a no man's land.
AVA DUVERNAY:
that, as a country, we've not been able
to reconcile our differences.
People who believe one thing live on one side of the country,
and people who believe in something else
live on another side.
People have died, and New York was declared
a "demilitarized zone."
Everyone was ordered to leave, but some people refused to.
This is about the people who stayed
and one woman who makes her way back into the DMZ
to liberate her son, and in the process,
liberates herself.
ROSARIO DAWSON:
that Ava wanted to sink her teeth into.
It's so topical, but also it's bigger than that,
and she does it from so many different angles
but it always kinda goes back to, "Who are you choosing to be?
How are you choosing to be?
And what world do you want to really be in?"
If you're gonna get that raw and vulnerable with someone,
it's gotta be Ava.
ROBERTO PATINO:
But then you get in there, and you're like,
"Manhattan has been turned inside-out."
What do the Cloisters look like?
What's Central Park look like?
What's the South Street Seaport look like?
I spent a lot of my growing up in New York City.
So many angles we're recreating with visual effects
were places I had driven over hundreds of times
when I lived there.
So we could be really exact and say, "No,
from this angle, you're gonna see this."
From Skel's apartment, which is on the Hudson River,
what you're gonna see across the way
is the Palisades. That's New Jersey.
If New York City was abandoned, what would that look like?
There would still be something standing.
Some of what we know to be pristine
next to something that got bombed.
One of the things that we leaned into
is the way people repurpose and reconfigure things.
The way that people have taken over spaces
that previously they were not allowed into.
We had to get it right.
This is a world where basic utilities
that you and I enjoy, don't exist.
This is a place where there's no law.
Systems of value have totally been redefined.
If you have electricity, it's because you have power.
If you have running water, that is power.
A dollar matters but a working lightbulb matters more.
The best speculative fiction has always been
cautionary tales.
Telling us what the dangers of what we would become... are.
I don't think
It's there to raise questions.
It's gonna get you thinking.
Now what you think about is up to you.
And I think this kind of material
is the best for people to interrogate
their own thoughts about differences,
about equity, about resources,
and the division of them.
About the way you deal with people you don't agree with.
This show is about people coming together.
This show is about people from all walks of life,
all nationalities, realizing that they can
operate as one community in peace.
I can't tell you how proud I am to be very much
a part of the world of the
When you start with the ostracism,
Ava DuVernay is the director and producer,
and Roberto Patino is the writer and showrunner,
you're already ahead.
And then you populate this world with actors like Rosario Dawson,
Hoon Lee, and a cast of characters
that are extremely talented, it's been a long time coming.
You don't have to have read the graphic novel to be able
to enter into the DMZ.
What you can expect is a story of a badass woman
who is going to find her son by any means necessary.
Along the way, she's gonna experience
some stuff that blows your mind.
Sparks fly.
♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS) ♪