LA 92 (2017)

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Simply using existing footage and avoiding any talking heads, this weaves a tale of how an incident incited violence in a community, what happened, and how nothing was really changed. I can't praise this enough for just letting images tell the story, never getting heavy handed with "experts." SEE THIS.

This documentary does an extraordinary job at depicting the events that unfolded in south Los Angeles in 1992 through the use of compelling 'raw' footage from the event itself. It also accurately shows the connection to past similar events that led to the L.A riots in 1992, and its use of symbolic historical footage creates a powerful and striking analysis that is hard to forget.

There's a saying: There's no time like the present. Except there is a time like the present, and National Geographic is premiering LA 92, a documentary that dug up every nook and cranny of 1992 in the City of Los Angeles, a time just like the present. LA 92's edge comes from the use of only archival footage tell its story. There are no interviews or experts, just raw footage of each and every catalyst, narrated by everyday people and news media alike. Even though I knew the outcome, I still sat in suspense because every second is authentic.About 35 minutes in, my stomach began to burn and I felt the same disappointment and resentment as the real people in the documentary. America hasn't recovered from Ferguson, Baltimore, and police brutality continues to deepen America's political and racial divide, just like the divide in LA 92, the divide that has always been in America. LA 92's tagline, The Past Is Prologue, couldn't be more fitting. Just as the LA riots preceded Ferguson, riots in Watts preceded LA's 92 riots.From the opening of LA 92, it is crystal clear, that racism and police brutality have long been intertwined. We see a police department that not only criminalizes a group of people but also fails to protect that same group of people. The LAPD has long been tarnished by accusations of racism, and there is enough footage in LA 92 to uphold those accusations. In their own words, LAPD officers admitted they performed actions that were "violent" and that "police work can be brutal." The smoking gun was the admission that, "In Los Angeles, the chokehold is associated with death for blacks."One officer's testimony in the Rodney King Trial sounds like the blueprint for George Zimmerman's testimony during his trial for the death of Trayvon Martin in 2012. Both Zimmerman and the officer defended themselves by saying they were so scared of being killed by their victims that they acted violently and brutally in self defense. This mindset that African- Americans are inherently violent is the dangerous societal side effect of the systematic criminalization of African-Americans that has led to the murders of Michael Brown, Freddie Gray, Philando Castile, Trayvon Martin, Alton Sterling, and countless other African-Americans.At one point of LA 92, someone shouts out "Black lives matter!" long before the hashtag. That is the importance of LA 92. This documentary is a case study that examines a system and not just a city or a year. LA 92 could easily be BALTIMORE 2015 or FERGUSON 2014. The buildup, explosion, and aftermath were all the same, yet we still have the same problems. The hysteria we see in LA is the same hysteria I witnessed firsthand living in St. Louis during 2014. I remember the boarded up storefronts and closed off highways. I also remember the burning buildings in Ferguson and military tanks parked in random locations, ready to pushback against any resistance.Did we learn anything from any of those events? The answer is yes, but there is still much more to learn and that is what makes LA 92 a must-see. LA 92 premieres at Tribeca Film Festival on April 21, followed by a screening tour including St. Louis on April 29, before premiering on National Geographic on April 30

A friend of mine asked me if I've seen this. "You must see it", he said, "I was on the edge of my seat the whole documentary". Figuratively, I of course assumed. But it wasn't figuratively.It was literally. Half-way through it I realized that my muscles were tense and my breath shallow, there could have been a riot going on outside without me noticing, because I was in the middle of the 1992 LA riots. This documentary is intense, it's frightening, it's scary, and all just by showing archive footage with some added music. It gives a perspective on what led to the riots, and it draws – sometimes eerie – comparisons to the Watts riots. I would argue that this is an important documentary. It's brutal, it's frightening, it's sad, it might make you nauseous, and it will probably make you think.It's extraordinary. Just... Just watch it.