And the narrator never shows up (laughs). I always joke that when we do a film like this, people are waiting for the narrator to come and save them. It’s intended to just reach out and grab viewers. But for younger people, who really don’t know about something that is relatively modern American history, I think it’s better to let them live through it, experience it, like we did. There are wonderful and important stories to tell in that format. TJ- I started out doing History Channel docs after I was a reporter, and it attracted a certain audience of people who were really into history. The other interesting aspect is you are telling it for the first time to younger people, who may have never seen images like this before. How has the world changed today compared to that experience I just had from watching this? Has it changed?” So the point of doing it was to make it come alive in a way that other documentaries, that have people telling stories from the past, just can’t do.ĪB- And I think you did a great job of that, as someone who kind of lived through it.
Then in your own mind, be able to say, “Gee, that’s what it was really like to be around in LA in 1992. Hopefully you experience it in a way that is unique to other accounts of what went on. With the state of the world today, so much division in the country, picking a story like the LA Riots to do in this format felt very right and necessary. We wanted people to feel like this is happening right now. So we’re taking factual information and presenting it in a way that I think viewers will find much more experiential. The difference is, everything in this documentary is real and accurate. The story would just continue to flow, almost like a movie. Then it becomes this huge jigsaw puzzle to use other people’s words and reporting to put it all together in a way that makes it feel like you’re actually experiencing what went on. So we go out and gather all of this material that we can get our hands on. We didn’t do any interviews, and we relied just on the media from that time to tell the story. It’s been done a few times over the years, but it’s a very difficult format, in that we got rid of the narrator. And I had reached a point a few years ago where I thought there’s got to be a better way to make people really experience what these events were like.
When I changed to doing documentaries for television, it was great to interview people and put together pieces with a narrator to explain. I used to be a newspaper reporter here in Los Angeles, and I worked at the old Santa Monica Outlook and after that the LA Times, but that’s where I was at the time.
#THE LOST TAPES LA RIOTS SERIES#
The series is called, The Lost Tapes, and we’ve done a few of these before that have no narration and no interviews. TJ- Well, we do a series for the Smithsonian Channel, of which this is a part. Can you take us through the editing and what your primary objective was in creating this piece? I’m curious if you could describe the process in deciding to create it the way you did. And you are correct, I remember what you remember (laughs).ĪB- I really enjoyed the way you’ve told the story, through your use of images and video.
TJ- Happy to speak with you as well, Adam. I remember seeing tanks roll across Ventura Boulevard and having the curfew, knowing everyone across LA had to be home by a particular time. I’m actually from Los Angeles, and I was there during the time frame when the riots occurred.
#THE LOST TAPES LA RIOTS TV#
READ MORE: Mike Fasano, Pasco County Tax Collector Announces Essay Contest For High School StudentsĬBS Local’s Adam Bloom spoke with Jennings ahead of the documentary’s TV premiere for an inside look at the creation of this audio-visual time capsule.ĪB- Hi Tom, happy to speak with you today. This documentary features previously un-aired footage and recordings captured by both the Los Angeles police and fire departments that put viewers right back to 1992 for firsthand accounts from those at the center of the turmoil. On Sunday, April 23rd at 8:00 PM (ET/PT) the Smithsonian Channel will air a documentary called The Lost Tapes: LA Riots, from Executive Producer, Tom Jennings. Following this decision, riots broke out in Los Angeles, throwing the city into chaos and causing destruction and turmoil of historic proportions. April 29th, 1992 was the day that four LAPD members were acquitted for the use of excessive force in the arrest of Rodney King after a high-speed chase down the streets of Northern Los Angeles.
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