Another year of hectic times is upon us and another Black Friday looms as consumers go on a annual frenzy to find the best gifts for the best people in their life at the best prices. As always, music acts as so much more than an easy go-to gift, it’s also such a healing agent for the soul, a celebratory agent for the emotional, a fun agent for mindless loose times, and a true passionate art manifested for all, those creating it and those absorbing it. Here are some bright musical spots on the holiday radar this year, a bakers dozen to choose from.

Check out our 2018 Holiday Geek Gift Guide for Music“¦

The Central Park Five
Written and Directed by Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, and David McMahon
Starring: Ed Koch, Kharey Wise, Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana
Sundance Selects
Unrated | 120 minutes
Release Date: December 14, 2012

In 1989, five black and Latino teenagers from Harlem were arrested and convicted of brutally beating and raping a white woman in New York City’s Central Park.

New York Mayor Ed Koch called it the “Crime of the Century.” The five each spent between six and 13 years in prison before a serial rapist confessed that he alone had committed the crime, resulting in their convictions being overturned.

Renowned for his award-winning PBS documentaries, Ken Burns has jointly produced and directed The Central Park Five with his daughter Sarah Burns, and her husband, David McMahon.

The documentary revisits the Central Park Jogger case, the NYPD’s rush to judgment, an outraged public, and painfully examines the lives of the five teenagers: Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, Kharey Wise, and Yusef Salaam.

The Central Park Five is a gripping, heartbreaking, and infuriating documentary and serves to expose the myriad injustices and prejudices within our country’s judicial system. These five young men were repeatedly lied to by New York City Police Department detectives and coerced into confessing to a crime with which they had no involvement.