Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Crips And Bloods: Made In America

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For decades now, our young men have been killing each other.

This film outlines the problem - the names have changed (Crips and Bloods do not dominate the way they did 20 years ago), but the culture of gangs and tribal gang mentality still plagues our cities, even in a small city like Tucson.

So what is the answer? None of what we have done so far is working.

I found this film at Documentary Heaven, but the embed is from Hulu.

Directed by critically acclaimed documentary filmmaker Stacy Peralta and Executive Produced by NBA star Baron Davis and Silicon Valley entrepreneur Stephen Luczo, CRIPS AND BLOODS: MADE IN AMERICA tells the story of the Crips and Bloods, South Los Angeles’ two most infamous African-American gangs.

Combining unprecedented access into the worlds of active gangs, CRIPS AND BLOODS: MADE IN AMERICA offers a compelling, character-driven documentary narrative which chronicles the decades-long cycle of destruction and despair that defines modern gang culture.

The shocking war-zone reality of the South LA Gangs, the Crips and the Bloods.

From the genesis of LA’s gang culture to the shocking, war-zone reality of daily life in the South L.A., the film chronicles the rise of the Crips and Bloods, tracing the origins of their bloody four-decades long feud. Contemporary and former gang members offer their street-level testimony that provides the film with a stark portrait of modern-day gang life: the turf wars and territorialism, the inter-gang hierarchy and family structure, the rules of behavior, the culture of guns, death and dishonor.

Ex-gang members of the Crips and Bloods, gang intervention experts, activists and academics talk.

Throughout the film ex-gang members, gang intervention experts, writers, activists and academics analyze many of the issues that contribute to South LA’s malaise: the erosion of identity that fuels the self-perpetuating legacy of black self-hatred, the disappearance of the African-American father and an almost pervasive prison culture in which today one out of every four black men will be imprisoned at some point in his life.

Solution to the South LA gang problem.

Finally the gang members themselves articulate their enduring dream of a better life. They provide CRIPS AND BLOODS: MADE IN AMERICA with its ultimate statement: a message of hope and a cautionary tale of redemption aimed at saving the lives of a new generation of kids, not just in South LA but anywhere in the world that gang violence exists.



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