National Geographic recounts the Rodney King incident and ensuing madness of the LA riots
Two Cents is an original column akin to a book club for films. The Cinapse team will program films and contribute our best, most insightful, or most creative thoughts on each film using a maximum of 200 words each. Guest writers and fan comments are encouraged, as are suggestions for future entries to the column. Join us as we share our two cents on films we love, films we are curious about, and films we believe merit some discussion.
The Pick
Over the years, different documentary filmmakers have adopted different approaches for imparting the import of their subject matters. Talking heads, voice overs, dramatic recreations, there is really no end to the number of approaches that can taken.
LA 92 opts to let the past do the talking. Formed almost entirely out of contemporary footage (with infrequent, intermittent cards providing timeline/background info), the documentary from directors T.J. Martin and Daniel Lindsay charts the uneasy history of race in Los Angeles, culminating in the 1993 Rodney King riots, in which the public ideal of Los Angeles as an idealized, utopic melting pot of different races and cultures went up in very literal flames. LA 92 lays out the ways in which the fault-lines in LA’s power dynamics existed for decades before a long hot summer brought a quake whose rumbling is still being felt all these years later.
Tragically relevant, LA 92 premiered on the National Geographic Channel and went on to win an Emmy for Documentary Filmmaking, upsetting the highly-touted, Oscar-winning OJ: Made in America. So this week, the Two Cents team decided to take a stroll down memory lane, reminding ourselves that the madness of our time didn’t come from nowhere.
Next Week’s Pick
In December, Rian Johnson released the latest installment in the ongoing Star Wars saga, The Last Jedi, and seeing as how there have been close to a dozen of these things, everyone just sort of shrugged and went about their business.
LOL, JK, people lost their shit. Shit remains lost, as Star Wars ‘fans’ are now in the sixth month of an ongoing tantrum (and associated harassment campaign against Johnson and several actors). Some who dislike the film have reasonable, well-articulated grievances with Johnson’s choices.
But, and let’s be upfront here, for every reasonable argument against The Last Jedi, there’s a dozen mouth-breathing dipshits pitching a fit because the new Star Warses prominently feature women, people of color, and don’t conform to the fan fiction they’ve been penning/masturbating to for years.
Ignoring the dipshits, we hope you will join us next week as we cover The Last Jedi, newly added to Netflix Instant.
Would you like to be a guest in next week’s Two Cents column? Simply watch and send your under-200-word review on any MCU film to twocents(at)cinapse.co anytime before midnight on Thursday!
The Team
In 1992, I was 10. While young when it all went down, I remember the Rodney King beating, trial, and proceeding riots quite clearly. Revisiting this period of history with the documentary LA 92 brought me back to my youth, yet felt more relevant for me in its relationship to today’s world.
Simply put, the footage used in this film is powerful and moving. It’s serious a must watch documentary for both its historical importance and its modern application. (@thepaintedman)
Scarier than most horror movies, LA 92 is bitter, necessary medicine, and a stark reminder of both how much and how little has changed in over 25 years. I thought I knew all the major bullet points about the 1992 riots, but the film illustrates in great detail how the riots were the end result of years and years of previous incidents and mounting tensions, finally exploding when a people were pushed too far and given too little hope. The immediacy of the footage transports you back to that time, letting you feel the heat of the sun and the spreading blaze, the mounting terror as aggression escalates, and the sheer tonnage of bad faith that the citizens in Los Angeles had for each other at this time. Even knowing the story going in, the imagery is still shocking, a testament to how expertly Martin and Lindsay utilize their footage. (@theTrueBrendanF)
I felt somewhat ignorant about the LA riots, which was part of my reason for choosing this film, (the other being more obvious — how relevant it is today with so much racism and anger boiling up in American again).
I only really know of the riots by reputation, not having ever actually viewed the Rodney King video, nor much of the news coverage. National Geographic’s documentary is an incredibly balanced assemblage of primary source footage, eschewing narration or commentary and letting powerful archival footage do all the talking.
What’s revealed is an American tragedy of immense scope and horror. Police brutality. A city pillaged and set on fire. Racism and hatred lashing out in all directions. Koreans (yeah, that would be my people so I can call them out specifically) shooting guns all over the place. There are no “sides”, just a mess of confusion and hostility.
But in watching this I’m also reminded of the advice that Fred Rogers reassures us with when scary t hings are happening: “‘Look for the helpers”. In the madness and ruination, there are people doing the right thing. Assisting the wounded, speaking out against the madness, and cleaning up after the damage is done. Let’s not only find encouragement in that, but strive to be those people. (@VforVashaw)
Watch it on Netflix:
http://www.netflix.com/title/80184131
Next week’s pick: