Directed by critically acclaimed documentary filmmaker Stacy Peralta and Executive Produced by NBA star Baron Davis and Silicon Valley entrepreneur Stephen Luczo, Crips and Bloods: Made in America tells the story of the Crips and Bloods, South Los Angeles’ two most infamous African-American gangs.
From the genesis of LA’s gang culture to the shocking, war-zone reality of daily life in the South L.A., the film chronicles the rise of the Crips and Bloods, tracing the origins of their bloody four-decades long feud. Contemporary and former gang members offer their street-level testimony that provides the film with a stark portrait of modern-day gang life: the turf wars and territorialism, the inter-gang hierarchy and family structure, the rules of behavior, the culture of guns, death and dishonor. Throughout the film ex-gang members, gang intervention experts, writers, activists and academics analyze many of the issues that contribute to South LA’s malaise: the erosion of identity that fuels the self-perpetuating legacy of black self-hatred, the disappearance of the African-American father and an almost pervasive prison culture in which today one out of every four black men will be imprisoned at some point in his life. Finally the gang members themselves articulate their enduring dream of a better life. They provide
Crips and Bloods: Made in America with its ultimate statement: a message of hope and a cautionary tale of redemption aimed at saving the lives of a new generation of kids, not just in South LA but anywhere in the world that gang violence exists.
Stacy Peralta‘s laurels include both a World Skateboard Championship and a Director’s Award at the Sundance Film Festival. Stacy Peralta was born and raised in West Los Angeles. But Peralta was also a product of the streets, where he and a band of fellow “Dogtown” teenagers became the vanguard of the 1970s Skateboard Culture. Peralta rolled this status into a real profession, earning product endorsements, TV and film appearances and a Skateboarding World Championship — all by the age of 19. During the early 1980s, Peralta literally created an entirely new genre of film. Equal parts action, entertainment and personality, Peralta’s series of 8 “straight-to-video” skate films revolutionized sports media, establishing a template that has become the standard in today’s action sports industry.
In 2000, Peralta wrote and directed the critically acclaimed Dogtown and Z-Boys, an unflinching chronicle of the birth of modern skateboard culture. Dogtown and Z-Boys won both the prestigious Directors Award and the Audience Award at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. The film then went on to win “Best Documentary” at the Independent Spirit Awards as well as an international release through Sony Pictures Classics.
Riding Giants, his second feature documentary and a dramatic examination of the world of big wave surfing, was chosen for the opening night premiere at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival — an honor never before bestowed on a documentary. It too went on to an international run with Sony Pictures Classics.
Made in America is not only Peralta’s most personal project. It has also been his most difficult. After watching Los Angeles burn in 1992 and with a young son at home, Peralta found himself questioning why this was happening for a second time in the same city and why were the two most infamous African-American gangs created here in L.A.. After a very long road, he has created the film he set out to create 15 years ago, an insider’s look on a subject that very few on the outside know anything about.