The Black Jacket

Although rough-looking, filmmaker Ryan Simon's cinema vérité-style The Black Jacket is a persuasive documentary that centers on the interventionist philosophy of former Black Panther Aquil Basheer, who has been working to curb gang violence in L.A.'s South Central since 1969. Basheer, atypically dressed in a suit and tie, receives a $25,000 California Peace Prize in recognition of his contributions to society, and the L.A. city council formally adopts his nonprofit Professional Community Intervention Training Institute as the city's go-to program for solutions to gang violence. But the bulk of the film doesn't focus on Basheer's work with gangs (in fact, the camera tends to point downward when an encounter with an actual gang member occurs). Instead, Simon concentrates on the multi-week training course that Basheer and his staff provide well-screened community volunteers, teaching de-escalation and intervention techniques to use in confrontational situations. Simon follows a couple of individual students from one class in order to gauge the impact of the training on people's hearts and minds. Basheer was recently invited to speak before the United Nations in Geneva, a testament to the effectiveness of his methods. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (T. Keogh)