Crips and Bloods: Made in America

Iconic skateboarder-cum-documentary-filmmaker Stacy Peralta explores the roots of the decades-spanning gang war that has consigned certain L.A. blocks to a never-ending shitstorm of thug-life violence. He speaks with gang members past and present for a street’s-eye view of the conflict, and the self-perpetuating cycle of hopelessness, ignorance and poverty is certainly a depressing spectacle. But it’s not a very revelatory one, and even fosters ambivalence; who’s going to help out when simply crossing the wrong street is punishable by death?