Crips and Bloods: Made in America

Documentarian Stacy Peralta, who profiled skateboarders in Dogtown and Z-Boys and surfers in Riding Giants, turns his attention to another Southern California subculture in Crips and Bloods. Oscar-winner narrator Forest Whitaker, who played an L.A. police officer on The Shield, points out that the long-running feud between the two titular African-American gangs “has taken five times as many lives” as the sectarian violence in Ireland, but received considerably less attention. Peralta's powerful film takes viewers back to a more segregated mid-20th-century America, a time when the Boy Scouts organization discouraged blacks from joining their ranks, so the latter formed their own clubs and fraternities, which former gang member Ron Wilkins says provided acceptance and “a sense of family,” especially in the face of continuous police harassment. The near-week-long riot in 1965 in L.A.'s Watts neighborhood would encourage the growth of activist organizations such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Black Panther Party, to which Wilkins pledged his allegiance, but there was only so much community outreach these groups could accomplish. Hence, from a breeding ground of fewer economic opportunities and more readily available drugs, emerged the Crips and Bloods. Peralta tracks their development by speaking to gang members, authors, and familiar figures, like Senator Tom Hayden and actor/football great Jim Brown (Amer-I-Can Foundation & Program), concluding on an upbeat note with a look at former gangbangers who are doing their part to encourage others to leave the thug life behind. DVD extras include interviews with rappers Snoop Dogg and Lil Wayne, a “making-of” featurette, and deleted scenes. Recommended. [Note: this title is also available with public performance rights for $295 from Bullfrog Films (www.bullfrogfilms.com).] Aud: C, P. (K. Fennessy)