LA 92

On April 29, 1992, the streets and neighborhoods of Los Angeles, California started to burn just after the Rodney King verdict was announced where four white police officers caught on videotape brutally beating an unarmed black motorist (King) were acquitted of assault by a predominantly white Simi Valley jury. Violent protests, looting and arson lasted several days and left more than 50 people dead. Twenty-five years later, the acclaimed documentary LA 92 from Oscar® winning directors Daniel Lindsay and T.J. Martin (UNDEFEATED) explores the events leading to the violence, as well as the chaos and destruction that happened.  

Named by Variety as one of the best films of 2017, LA 92 presents an incredibly immersive and affecting experience of a city in turmoil, without any talking heads or narration, which eerily resembles the same news stories we see on TV today 25 years later. The filmmakers spent over a year searching and sifting through over 1700 hours of footage from news reports, journalists' stories and news archives.  Told entirely only through these stunning news reports and images and rarely seen archival footage, this gripping film captures the shock, disappointment and fury felt by many Angelenos, particularly those in the African American community. In the case of the King beating, it was the first time the kind of abuse many had witnessed or experienced at the hands of LAPD officers was recorded and broadcast for the world to see, leaving some with the sense that if justice did not prevail despite such graphic evidence, it never would. LA 92 offers a riveting glimpse of a major American city during some of its  darkest days. Viewed from a multitude of vantage points, the film brings a fresh perspective to a pivotal moment that reverberates even to this day in U.S. 2017.

Includes a post-film conversation with directors Dan Lindsay and TJ Martin and producer Jonathan Chinn, moderated by Claudia Puig, Film Week critic on KPCC.

DAN LINDSAY and TJ MARTIN (Co-directors) have been collaborating since 2007 and are co-directors, co-editors and co-cinematographers of the feature-length documentary “Undefeated.” The film premiered at the 2011 SXSW film festival, where it was purchased by The Weinstein Company for North American distribution. In 2012, the film won the Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary, making Martin the first director of African-American descent to win an Oscar for a feature-length film. The film was also nominated for Best Documentary at the Critics’ Choice Awards and Black Reel Awards and has won numerous festival awards, including the Special Jury Prize at DOC NYC and Audience Awards at Indie Memphis and the Chicago International Film Festival. “Undefeated” also had the honor of making its international debut at the Toronto International Film Festival.