With a first-person look at the notorious Crips and Bloods, this film examines the conditions that have lead to decades of devastating gang violence among young African Americans growing up in South Los Angeles.
- IMDb.com

In one small stretch of land in south Los Angeles, there is enough history, tragedy, and hope to inform a nation. This area is known as South Central LA, once a hotbed of African American culture but now known to many as simply a war zone.

Applying his distinct storytelling style to explore the history of this neighborhood, filmmaker Stacy Peralta interviews many who have lived there, who have survived, and who try to hold this community together. In this film rich with historical footage, subjects recount their innovation of forming their own "clubs" after being denied participation in the Boy Scouts of America. From the Watts riots to community-inspired activism and the Black Power movement that exploded in the late 1960s, the evolution of this neighborhood is complicated and not easily explained. This is especially true since, after the Black Power movement was systemically squelched by the federal government, a new element arose in the face of oppression: the Crips.

In this broad, historic examination of South Central, the film traces the roots of African American transplants who fled a racist South only to find its more subdued form just as powerful in Southern California. Peralta relays stories that have gone unnoticed for far too long, stories that are distinctly made in America 
–Sundance Film Guide

ExP: Stephen Luczo, Quincy Jones III
Pr: Dan Halsted, Baron Davis, Stacy Peralta, Jesse Dylan
CoP: Gus Roxburgh, Shaun Murphy, Cash Warren
Ci: Tony Hardmon
Ed: T.J. Mahar
Narrator: Forest Whitaker

On the topic of life and death, surely one of the most important documentaries at this festival is "Made in America," an operatic history and prehistory of the Crips-Bloods gang war of South Los Angeles, made by "Dogtown and Z-Boys" director Stacy Peralta. It's a film that will challenge audiences on many levels, from its horrifying newsreel footage of the bloodshed that has claimed an estimated 15,000 lives over three decades to its numerous interviews with current and former gang members and its complicated lessons on the racial history and geography of L.A.

Peralta builds a case that the long-running gang war and all its associated pathologies resulted from a perfect storm of toxic ingredients: restrictive real-estate covenants, the notorious paramilitary racism of the LAPD, the rapid deindustrialization of Los Angeles in the decades after World War II and the implosion of the African-American family. Some of that may sound like old-school, blame-society white liberalism, but the film is far more complicated than that. Virtually all of Peralta's interviewees agree that poor black communities suffer from prodigious self-hatred -- why else would so many young men embark on careers of pointless, suicidal violence? -- and that the problem must be healed from within, more than without (although spending so many billions of taxpayer dollars on the world's most punitive program of incarceration rather than, say, education really isn't helping).

As Peralta told me during a fascinating interview on Tuesday (see the video here), his central intention is to humanize these young men, so often regarded as members of some predatory, not-quite-human species. "These are American teenagers, and we need to treat them that way," he said. "If 28 percent of the white male population were in prison, I kind of think we'd be doing something about it."

As a group of men who appear in the film told me during a remarkable interview, coming to Sundance was a startling experience. (Again, video is on the way.) They'd been put up for free in lovely quarters, fed luxurious meals and loaded up with some of the sponsors' famous gift bags, and good for them. But more than that, they said, they suddenly found themselves in a context where they were accepted as individuals, not as members of an alien and frightening population. "It wasn't like this two days ago in L.A.," one guy said in wonderment, "and it won't be like this when we get home."

A source close to Peralta's film says a distribution deal is imminent, with Time Warner's Picturehouse, Sony Pictures Classics, Miramax and the Weinstein Co. all in the running. "Made in America" may need some trimming and tidying before it's ready to face the public, but it's a shocking, absorbing and absolutely necessary film. To ask the brutally obvious question: What in Jesus Christ's name are we doing fighting a war halfway around the world, and allowing one to rage virtually unchecked in our second-biggest city?

Sundance 2008 Interview: Stacy Peralta (Made in America)

[IONCINEMA.com is proud to feature the rookie and veteran filmmakers showcased and nurtured at the 2008 edition of the Sundance Film Festival. This is part of collection of emailer interviews conducted prior to the festival - we would like to thank the filmmakers for their time and the hardworking publicists for making this possible.]

Stacy Peralta

Your past three documentary films appear to have one trait in common: survival of the fittest in a sometimes unforgiving landscape....Can you discuss the genesis of Made in America ­ how did you go from Xtreme Sports to extreme living - how did the initial idea come about?
The initial idea sprang from this question I asked myself: if white American teenagers were forming gangs, arming themselves with automatic weapons and killing each other on the street of America, what do you think the response would be of our government? Would government allow this to happen? And would our government allow it to continue to happen decade after decade?

Where was Sam George in this process and how did this become a story you wanted to tell?
I originally hired an African American journalist, Trey Ellis, to co-write the film with me, but at the last minute he got an offer to teach at a prestigious NY University. So then I decided I would write it alone. Sam came into the edit bay one day, my editor T.J Mahar and I showed him a sequence of the film we were working on and he literally fell out of his chair. I then asked him if he was interested in working on the film. He said "yes".

Can you elaborate on what kind of work went into the pre-production process (how long you've been working on this project prior to pre-production and what specifically you did to prepare, and were there specific people involved in this process that are worth signaling out?
It took over a year to obtain financing. We had a superbly written treatment and a seven minute demonstration piece of the film cut and we were still turned down by every major Hollywood studio and Production Company we pitched too.

I read as many books as I could find about the gang situation in Los Angeles, about African American history in LA and about the black experience in general. All were very helpful.

The real interesting preparation came when I began meeting gang members early on and the initial pre-interviews I had with them. They were all so very enlightening and all were so eager to talk and be heard.

What aesthetic decisions did you make prior to shooting? Did you use any new techniques that you wanted to employ?
I wanted the locations and the background of the interviews to look and sound like the inner city as I wanted the inner city to be a character in the film. We shot half of our material in the inner city and half at secure locations where all of the gang members were safe to be. We used quite a few new #D techniques and SFX as we were eager to keep pushing the envelope of the documentary world.  

The strong presence of narration appears to be a key component in setting the tonality of your docs ­ can you discuss the choice of having Forest come onboard...
Forest Whitaker was our first choice from day one. He was our one and only hope. We had no idea if he would ever become a reality. We were able to set up a screening and show him an early rough cut. He was moved by the film. Weeks later we got the great news that he decided to give the film it's voice. The day we recorded him he nailed it in one quarter the time we had booked.

Anatomy of a scene: What was the most difficult sequence during production?
The most difficult was also the most fulfilling which was introducing myself and my crew and our intentions to everyone we asked to be a part of this film. I went into many dangerous neighborhoods and met with gang members to build trust and put a face on our side, before filming ever began.., so they knew who was doing the film and what our intentions were. This took tremendous amount of time and energy of myself and the crew and a lot of diplomatic skill, but ultimately, it is what made the film possible because we got to know them and they got to know us.

What are you hoping that future audiences will take away from this film?
I hope those who see our film see these young men and women who are caught up in a gang life as fellow human beings.  

After premiering your last two docs at Sundance, would you say that it is almost a given that whenever you have a new film idea in mind that your aspired showcase is Park City?
I gear my production schedule to the Sundance schedule in the hopes that my films will be accepted. Getting accepted into the festival is never a guarantee but it's what I shoot for. I've had the two greatest professional experiences of my life at the Sundance festival. Being up there with my film is the only time I feel like a filmmaker. Also, I cannot overstate the importance Sundance plays to documentaries and to independent films. I don't know where the state of things would be without this festival.

In Search of Captain Zero: how far are you into the process of realizing this project?
It's one of many projects that may or may not go forward. At this point it is up to Sean Penn whether or not he is interesting I pursuing it.

Made in America is part of the Spectrum: Documentary Spotlight at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. It is currently seeking distribution.