LET IT FALL: Los Angeles 1982-1992 is a feature documentary that looks at the roots and the anatomy of the so-called “LA Riots” of 1992 on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of those events. The film tells the personal stories of people caught up in a series of events that lead to the three days of looting, arson, beatings and fatalities following the Rodney King verdicts.

The project was the product of a deep and passionate collaboration between ABC News producer and documentary filmmaker Jeanmarie Condon, and director John Ridley, whose academy award-winning screenplay for 12 Years a Slave was perhaps the most frank and searing depiction of slavery that Hollywood had ever made.

Goals of the documentary: The filmmakers made a decision to focus on the personal stories of a diverse cast of characters whose lives became caught up in the events that lead to the riots, or who played a crucial role during those three fateful days in April 1992. They were driven by a common belief that to understand those events we need to understand not just “facts” but the emotional truths and the social context that propelled individuals to behave or react as they did. The goal was to see these events and the events leading up to them from multiple perspectives, and neither condemn nor exonerate. The goal, in short, was to simply ask our audience to understand the perspective of those who might not look exactly like them or share their particular history.

The ultimate goal was to look at the important historical moment as the product of individual decisions, often made under pressure in the heat of the moment, that were the product of years of personal and communal experiences that we all need to try to comprehend today. The making of the film was an emotional and eye opening experience. A diverse team of producer-reporters was assembled and each spent months in the communities we were covering, gaining insights that director John Ridley and team brought into the room when it was time to conduct on camera interviews. Time Span: The filmmakers chose to begin our narrative clock 10 years prior to the riots, with the advent of the controversial “chokehold” deaths of black men at the hands of the LAPD. We felt that while the roots of the riots stretched back 25, arguably hundreds of years before that, we wished to illustrate the pressures and perceptions within the memory of the people who would become our key players, in order to more fully comprehend why each might have acted or reacted as they did in the most personal way.

Characters: The intent of the filmmakers was to allow the characters we chose to tell the story in their own words, without commentary, as fully as possible in the scope of a feature- length documentary. The final cut was the product of months of background interviews, and on camera interviews that were hours long.

Background: Jeanmarie Condon, who directed and produced documentaries for Peter Jennings, and Christiane Amanpour was also a former Executive Producer of and therefore deeply familiar with ABC News’ archive. She had also spent many years covering issues of race and social justice both at home and abroad, and believed that this anniversary offered an important opportunity to draw lessons from our not-so- distant history.

Ms. Condon was a great admirer of Ridley’s work on 12 Years and his critically acclaimed television drama American Crime, produced by ABC Studios. As a writer and show runner he is known for taking on difficult topics about race, class, and history in the most humane and counter-intuitive ways. She proposed to ABC News that she ask Ridley to bring his perspective to this important chapter in the history of race relations in this country. Ridley had, coincidentally, been researching the topic for several years and worked on a screenplay with Spike Lee and Brian Grazer. In spite of having formidable partners, he had been unable to convince Hollywood to take on the subject for a dramatic film. As Ridley has said “the story was too complex for a Hollywood film. In my view there were no real villains and no real heroes. That made it a tough sell.” Ridley jumped at the opportunity to do a documentary treatment for ABC News. ABC’s Channing Dungey and James Goldston agreed to an unprecedented partnership between a director for ABC Studios and producer for ABC News, meant to deepen the impact and the level of narrative and editorial insight we could bring to bear on the project.

Additional Material: Additional material from the interviews that did not appear in the film appeared online on ABCNews.com.

Venues: The final product was two films: a 2.5 hour feature documentary that played in theaters and is available for streaming on multiple platforms as well as a 91 minute version that aired on ABC Television network the night before the anniversary. The intent was to get the film in front of as wide an audience as possible, and additional community screenings is planned across the summer and fall of 2017.

Honoring the community: The filmmakers, with the financial support of the network, held a premiere screening back in the community where the events we depicted began: South LA. It was held in the atrium of the California African America Museum and participants – Black, White, Asian, members of law enforcement and the families of those killed and /or found guilty of some of the most brutal acts of the riots all attended. In a moment of real emotion for Ridley and Condon the assembled audience gave the film a standing ovation and afterward those who had found themselves on opposite sides of the events in the most personal and tragic ways mingled afterward to speak and even embrace.

We are awaiting letters of support from prominent professors of the history of race in America in the coming weeks which we will forward promptly to the jury.

It is with great pride that we submit LET IT FALL: Los Angeles 1982-1992 for your consideration.