DVD Review: Crips and Bloods: Made in America: Jim Brown, Forest Whitaker, Tom Hayden, Todd Boyd, Gerard Horne, Skipp, Kumasi, Shaka, Bird, Ron Wilkins, Terry Goudeau, Gee Active, James, Big Girch, Nikko De, James Harris, Bo Taylor, Minister Tony Muhammad, Rock Johnson, Josh Sides, Stacy Peralta: Movies & TV
DVD Review: Crips and Bloods: Made in America: Jim Brown, Forest Whitaker, Tom Hayden, Todd Boyd, Gerard Horne, Skipp, Kumasi, Shaka, Bird, Ron Wilkins, Terry Goudeau, Gee Active, James, Big Girch, Nikko De, James Harris, Bo Taylor, Minister Tony Muhammad, Rock Johnson, Josh Sides, Stacy Peralta: Movies & TV
Product Description
L.A. rival gangs the Crips and the Bloods have permeated deep into American pop culture–including film, television, and music–epitomizing wanton violence and hopelessness. Regardless of how gritty gang life is portrayed in entertainment, nothing can compare to the disturbing and frightening reality of life in South Central Los Angeles. Stacy Peralta’s (Dogtown and Z-Boys, Riding Giants) chilling documentary Crips and Bloods: Made in America is a peek into their world, setting out to uncover why the rivalry was created and continues. It begins with a history lesson of the area and how racism, segregation, constant police monitoring, unemployment, broken homes, and civil unrest (e.g., the Watts riots) sowed the seeds of animosity, tension, and violence. The younger generation in the 1970s gravitated towards gang life seeking acceptance, identity, community, and protection. But as the gangs grew larger they became more territorial. Guns were eventually introduced, then drugs, leading to the 30-year war that has claimed the lives of over 15,000 people, just miles away from Beverly Hills. Combining archival footage and loads of candid interviews from existing and former members, Crips and Bloods is a gripping and honest telling of a horrible situation. –Rob Bracco
Stills from Crips and Bloods: Made in America (Click for larger image)
Q&A with Stacy Peralta
Why did you make this film?
A: As a documentary film maker and Los Angeles native, I couldn’t understand why this problem that has claimed 15,000 lives has continued decade after decade without any viable solution. Then I began wondering one day; what if affluent white teenagers from Beverly Hills began forming gangs and arming themselves with automatic assault rifles. And what if they started killing affluent white teenagers in Brentwood who were also forming gangs and arming themselves with automatic assault rifles - what would the response of our society be? What would the response of our government be? I began posing this question to as many people as I could find and their answer was always the same; our society and our government would never allow affluent white kids to continue in this way. That was my starting point in setting out to make this film.
Why do you think the history of LA gangs has not been explored in depth previously?
A: It’s a difficult subject to document primarily because it’s difficult to gain access. Gaining access takes a lot of time, patience and strategy because you have to build relationships with individuals in the effected neighborhoods in order to build enough trust to bring in camera crews and that process applies to every single hood. I typically went in alone and introduced myself to a contact that I had been lead too. The contact was usually a “shot-caller,” an OG or someone of high esteem in that particular set. I explained who I was, where I was from, why I was there and what I was asking for and what the goal of my film was. In essence I was doing everything possible to pay respect to that person and to their neighborhood and not force anything. Having said this, I’m not the first film maker to explore this tragedy and hopefully won’t be the last.
You’re well known for two documentaries about a different kind of Southern Californian life: DOGTOWN AND Z-BOYS and RIDING GIANTS. Did you see this film as a real departure from those?
A: Certainly it’s a departure from a political standpoint and historical standpoint and the life and death standpoint. But there is a similarity with my previous two films in that all three are about male sub-cultures taking place in Los Angeles. My two previous films were an angle of the American dream where this film is perhaps more an angle of the American nightmare that has been taking place in LA for over four decades.
How did Baron Davis and Forest Whitaker come to be involved with the film?
A: I was introduced to Baron which allowed me to pitch the film to him which coincidentally he was already interested in doing himself. Baron’s right hand man, Cash Warren was able to get us connected to Forrest Whitaker. Forrest agreed to see an early cut of the film. He graciously viewed it and told us he would support it by narrating it which was what we were hoping for.
Once you decided to make the film, how did you go about getting access to the gang world and its history?
A: One individual at a time. Early on I went to meet with Jim Brown simply to get his blessing as he has been involved for years in teaching former gang members life management skills. Jim lead me to a former gang member turned gang intervention specialist name Bo Taylor. Bo Taylor then drove me all over South Los Angeles introducing me to various gang members, shot callers, OGs etc. From there I met another Jim Brown connection and former original Compton Crip, Rock Johnson who put me in touch with quite a number of gangs in the Compton area. Again, in every case of meeting someone from the community I would explain who I was, where I was from, what my motivation for making this film was and what my goals for the film were.
Was there ever a point in filming when you or the crew felt you were in danger?
A: It’s difficult not to feel uneasy when you are in a community where police sirens and helicopters are speeding by and flying over almost every minute of the day. it’s difficult to feel secure when you’re interviewing someone and they tell you; “we’re lucky someone isn’t shooting at us right now.” More than anything I felt empathy for the young individuals I was meeting as they are faced with such incredible hardship growing up in those conditions - you can feel the confusion within each one of them as they know that 15 minutes in either direction from where they are is an entirely different world that they cannot gain access too.
Have you been surprised by any audience reactions to the film?
A: I’ve been surprised and heartened by viewers wanting to discuss the film after seeing it. I’ve been surprised and heartened by how many viewers have told me that prior to seeing my film they felt gang members were nothing but demons and animals and now as a result of the film there might be another way to see them perhaps as humans.
Snoop Dogg and Lil Wayne contributed interviews to the DVD. Why do you think the glamorization of gang culture has become so pervasive in the music world?
A: I will answer with a question: why is there so much violence in American feature films, in American episodic television and American video games - - - our entertainment is filled and saturated with violence - gangsta rap is just one piece of a much broader American medium.
You had a Congressional screening of the film recently in support of the Youth PROMISE Act. What are your feelings about the opportunities to institute real change in South Central?
A: We as a country are going to have to learn how to THINK about this problem in a different way if we ever expect to fix it - we as individual Americans must be open to changing how we look at this ongoing tragedy otherwise our non-involvement will continue to enable the problem go on, decade after decade, with children dying and prisons continuing to overload.
Substance powerful
By Professor Brizzi (Interlochen, MI) —
Simply part of the length and the most powerful commentary on race in America I le ‘VE never seen. Substance powerful powerful. Something that every American should sit down and pay the most attention to. The section on the Watts riots gave me cold. Just incredibly well - done. The interpretation of the economic base of the of the ‘ghettoization of s is short and 100% on target. The way the film traces the roots of today of ’s problems so clear to slavery, Jim Crow, and marginalization of the black American in the most prosperous after WWII is a perfect launch. It ‘ s hard to understand how someone one can grow in LA and have never seen the Pacific Ocean island, but this world of crips and bloods American epidemic is going to have to confront sooner or later.
But this dvd and watch this film
Excellent documentary that explains the fury of some of the young men of color,
By; ViAmber (Los Angeles, CA United States) —
I just saw this movie last night and back again to see it. It was very powerful, much more so than I ever imagined.
The film traces back through history, detail roots fury , as they say, for the colored man in Los Angeles. The film is never boring, using archival film clips of the past, intertwined with interviews of past troop members who are incredibly articulate and scholars. Kumasi ‘barely controlled anger of s is marred with intelligent discourse measured. I was fascinated.
The only surprise for me was the lack of mention of the influence of rap music and hard towards the troops, although there is plenty to have on the soundtrack anywhere.
it ’s not just a thing of troops,
By; Adam Selene (outside Los Angeles) —
I lived my entire life in the Los Angeles-area bigger, and I was never even aware of what was thirty miles away. The incredible power of this movie is a absolute must observe - particularly we ignorant white people who see the central problem just south of troops.
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