There’s nothing like a major news event anniversary to spur a deluge of retrospective programming — and TV networks are going all-in to mark 25 years since the 1992 LA riots.
Perhaps that’s because the uprising, a reaction to the acquittal of four white LAPD police officers in the filmed beating of black motorist Rodney King, feels especially relevant in 2017.
“It may be because of racial strife that’s going on in the country, because of declining relations between communities and police departments,” says Tom Jennings, executive producer of Smithsonian Channel’s “The Lost Tapes: LA Riots.” “That’s exactly what was going on in Los Angeles 25 years ago and before that, leading up to the riots, for decades.”
The first of these documentaries, “LA Burning: The Riots 25 Years Later,” premiered Tuesday night on A&E, and five more programs will premiere in the next week and a half — a deeper dive into race relations in ’90s-era LA that started with last year’s popular O.J. Simpson projects.
“The reason why ‘OJ: [Made in America]’ resonated … is it’s a window into the things today we do not want to discuss,” says Sacha Jenkins, director of Showtime’s “Burn Motherf*cker, Burn!” “Instead of Americans stopping to say, ‘Let’s look at Trayvon Martin’ … sometimes it’s easier to look to the past to start conversations.”
“Burn Motherf*cker, Burn!”
Friday at 9 p.m. on Showtime
Queens-based Jenkins brings his music journalism background (as a writer for Vibe, Rolling Stone and Spin) to this film, using hip-hop to help trace how African-American society was feeling from the 1962 ransacking of an LA mosque up to the King verdict. More than 80 people were interviewed, including rappers B-Real (of Cypress Hill) and Kam (an Ice Cube protege). Even the provocative title is a nod to music. “In ’65 the catchphrase on the street was ‘Burn baby, burn.’ In the ’80s, there was a song with the refrain ‘Burn motherf—er, burn,’” Jenkins says. “I wanted people to understand … when you’re under that kind of scrutiny and oppression, how the intensity of feeling increases.”
“The Lost Tapes: LA Riots”
Sunday at 8 p.m. on Smithsonian Channel
The found-footage “Lost Tapes” franchise recounts the days following the verdict through home videos, photographs and media coverage — including Compton radio station KJLH, whose music DJs switched to reporting news during the riots. One of the documentary’s biggest finds, says producer Jennings, is a trove of videotapes from the LAPD, which sent its own cameramen out to capture the chaos. “Unlike other media crews that might be with the crowds watching the police, these camera operators were standing toe-to-toe with the officers, so you’re able to experience what they’re seeing,” he says.
“Rodney King”
Friday, April 28 on Netflix
Spike Lee directs this one-man show starring Roger Guenveur Smith, who in a barefooted, spoken-word performance, channels the man at the center of the brutal police beating that ignited the 1992 LA riots.
“Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982-1992”
Friday, April 28 at 9 p.m. on ABC
Director John Ridley’s (“12 Years a Slave,” “American Crime”) two-hour documentary begins a decade before the riots, looking at the growing racial tensions in the city through interviews with LA’s black, white, Hispanic, Korean and Japanese-American residents, as well as police and city government officials.
“LA 92”
Sunday, April 30 at 9 p.m. on National Geographic
This documentary, which premieres Friday at the Tribeca Film Festival, also uses only archival footage and photographs. Its primary sources include never-before-seen images from the Los Angeles First AME Church; materials from the LA police and fire departments; and news broadcasts from LA-based Korean-language television stations, whose communities were also targeted during the riots.