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Life & Times Transcript
08/11/05 Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times -- Watts exploded in violence forty years ago. Is the anger and frustration that fueled the riots still simmering? Amde Hamilton>> I can't stand the leadership that's still here that were part of the destruction of this community. I can't stand the people to continue to exalt them. Val>> And then, our FilmWeek critics grapple with psychodrama, a tale of revenge and paradise lost. It's all straight ahead on tonight's Life and Times. Life and Times is made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education. And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg. Val>> Forty years ago today, the Watts riots broke out, but out of that violence came The Watts Prophets, a group of poets that are, in many ways, the fathers of modern rap music, but none of them live in Watts today. Toni Guinyard tracked them down to find out what they think of Los Angeles then and now. Richard Dedeaux>> To light up Los Angeles, Detroit, Philadelphia and most major cities of the world, it takes trillions and billions and millions and millions of watts. To light up Los Angeles, it only took one and I remember Watts. Toni Guinyard>> Poet Richard Dedeaux found his creative voice in the wake of an event that grabbed the nation's attention: the Watts riots. Richard Dedeaux>> In 1965, I was a kid on fire. See, with my poetry, I went to the white establishment with my poems. They said you got really nice work, but it's a little vicious. You know, you're talking about white people a little harsh. Toni Guinyard>> Two years after the riot in the summer of 1965, Dedeaux and fellow poets, Otis O'Solomon and Amde Hamilton, united to form The Watts Prophets. The group was part of the acclaimed Watts Writers Workshop and now, forty years after the collective anger of one community sparked day after day of violence, The Watts Prophets look back. Otis O'Solomon>> But it was not until it happened that I began to understand. Toni Guinyard>> Many still find it tough to comprehend, nearly a week of violence leaving thirty-four people dead and more than one thousand injured, four thousand people arrested and six hundred businesses destroyed. But people who lived through the summer of 1965 say the numbers don't tell the full story. Richard Dedeaux>> The lid on the pressure cooker just exploded. Otis O'Solomon>> There was a lot of conflict between the community and the police department at that time. Richard Dedeaux>> The incident that caused it was pushing this kid in the street and his mama got involved and all that, but what the underlying thing was, all this creativity in Watts with no area of expression. Toni Guinyard>> 116th Street and Avalon Boulevard, this is where the kid, a young black man suspected of drunk driving, struggled with a white police officer during a traffic stop. The incident sparked nearly a week of violence, but it also marked what was supposed to be a community's cultural and artistic rebirth. Amde Hamilton>> It's the perception of what Watts was in 1965. In 1965, Watts was a beautiful, creative, vibrant village that had problems just like black communities all across America has. Toni Guinyard>> Long-time residents say it's the part of Watts that gets lost when you look back and talk about what happened and what failed to happen. Amde Hamilton>> After the riots, no one consulted the Watts leadership here. Otis O'Solomon>> But over the years, you began to become almost depressed when you start to look around and see a lot of these things that was talked about that never really materialized. Toni Guinyard>> A lot was expected. In 1965 when many people wanted to stay as far away from Watts as possible, this is where Academy Award winning screenwriter, Bud Schulberg, felt he had to go. Richard Dedeaux>> And he saw a completely different Watts than what was being broadcast on television. He met people who he considered very talented. Toni Guinyard>> He formed the Watts Writers Workshop providing an outlet for the community's artistic talent. Otis O'Solomon>> When I first came to the Watts Writers Workshop, it was like you spend eighteen hours a day and, once you left with it on your mind, you couldn't wait to get back. Richard Dedeaux>> We came out of a lot of chaos. We came out of the Watts rebellion in 1965, the "I'm black and I'm proud" movement. There was a lot of bitterness, a lot of poison, inside. I'm speaking for myself. A lot of poison inside me. Hate this, kill that, whitey this, you know. Otis O'Solomon>> He had a poem that was very -- it was called "Kill, Kill, Kill" and we went a lot of places. It cost us a lot of jobs because when we go up and do that poem, the people would look at us and they would like, okay, we shocked them. When we got through, the guy that owned the club come up and said you guys are going to make a lot of money, but not in this club (laughter). Amde Hamilton>> I remember that poem. He's talking about hot-rod policemen zipping through the ghetto streets, trampling babies, killing people. You know, I already said it. I don't have to say it over and over and over again. It's been said many, many years ago and not much has changed in this community except all the wonderful and good people have been run off. Toni Guinyard>> Ask Hamilton anything about Watts and there's a good chance he'll have an answer, but he no longer lives here. Amde Hamilton>> This is all I loved. I never wanted to leave. This is my rhythm. I never wanted to leave it, but I can't stand it anymore. Toni Guinyard>> What can't you stand? Amde Hamilton>> I can't stand the leadership that's still here that were part of the destruction of this community. I can't stand the people to continue to exalt them. I can't continue to see this excess game that they continue to play in this community. Toni Guinyard>> But you have such a passion for this community. Conventional wisdom would say you would stay, that you would make a mark, that you can effect change. Amde Hamilton>> I haven't been able to so far. Toni Guinyard>> But he hasn't stopped trying. [Film Clip] Toni Guinyard>> The Watts Prophets still take to the stage a little older and wiser perhaps and they still attract an audience. We met O'Solomon and Hamilton at the Watts Coffeehouse where the group's album adorns the walls and the Writers Workshop once met. Here poetry takes center stage. Amde Hamilton>> Yes, that's all I've ever had. That's the tool I've ever had and that's what's kept me surviving is the truth. Like Otis always says, truth don't spoil. It's always fresh. Toni Guinyard>> Customers listened as the poets shared their views on everything from people to politics. Amde Hamilton>> "He eliminates those who stand in his way, an automatic, systematic dirty, professional way that ends up a low blow as he claims he honestly didn't know. I hope and pray that PR leaders see that no matter how blind he thinks black people and poor people be, they have eyes and they see." Otis O'Solomon>> You know, you're speaking from what you believe in and especially when you're speaking from where you come from, what you've experienced. No, you don't regret it and you got to say it. [Film Clip] Richard Dedeaux>> "And I remember Watts. With her eyes saddened with hunger and her empty pots, a place where winos and have-nots took their treasured possessions to pawn shops on 103rd and other spots, and I remember her old men sitting around on boxes in front of pool halls and in alleys and in vacant lots drinking wine and playing checkers and telling each other how this young generation was going to pot, crack and stuff like that. Yeah, I remember Watts." You start looking in the audience and realizing that the majority of our audience was little white poor kids and then you starting realizing the power of words. You can use them to hurt or you can use them to heal. Toni Guinyard>> And so they heal, their words serving as reminders of how it used to be. They've written books and they teach and they continue to recite poetry. Richard Dedeaux>> "It really doesn't matter where you go. As long as you're poor, it's still the Ghetto. You can be poor and white, it's still the Ghetto. They're all the same. You can be born brown. It's still the Ghetto. They're all the same. You can be born black. It's still the Ghetto. They're all the same. They're all the same. The only difference is in the name, and I remember Watts." Toni Guinyard>> I'm Toni Guinyard for Life and Times. Kcet.org is the place to look for the very latest on Life and Times. You'll find previews of upcoming stories, transcripts and audio of past episodes and links to some of our most interesting features. Just go to kcet.org and click on "Life and Times". Val>> There are big changes ahead for Southern California's malls. Fourteen Robinson's-May stores are closing and seven Macy's. It's a result of a merger between Federated and May Department Stores. Vicki Curry spoke with Rachel Brown of the Los Angeles Business Journal about this new era in retail. Vicki Curry>> This huge merger between Federated and the May Company is going to have quite an impact here in Southern California, first of all for consumers. What should the average consumer expect? Rachel Brown>> Well, first of all, at the end of next year, they should expect to see Robinson's-May changing to Macy's. Exactly what will be in the stores or the employee impact still remains to be seen. Federated, the parent company of Macy's, says that, by the end of next year, the assortment in the store should begin to change. So consumers may see the price points go up a little bit. Macy's may be a little bit more expensive than Robinson's-May, but they should also begin to see the assortment change as well and that means that there may be more fashionable items. Federated is known for buying more fashionable items, being a little bit more on the cutting edge than Robinson's-May has been. Vicki Curry>> Other ways that it's going to impact Southern California is on the economy and I think in ways that probably most people haven't thought about. What do you think is the biggest impact for local business? Rachel Brown>> Well, certainly mall operators are going to have to find a way to replace whatever closures there may be. Across the country, about seventy Robinson's-Mays should close and, in the Southern California area, it's estimated that about twenty should close. Of course, for mall operators, this means that they have to replace what is their Robinson's-May. That gives an opportunity for new entrants. It also means that, for the retailers that are already there, they're going to have to adjust as they see the big anchors in the malls leave. It also means for apparel manufacturers that they have less outlets to sell their clothes to, so they're going to have to adjust and to find new ways and new avenues to get the revenues which they've been seeing with the Robinson's-May stores in the past. Vicki Curry>> So many malls throughout Southern California are going to have this big gap, this big department store empty space. What are some of the possibilities of what might be in that new space? Rachel Brown>> Well, surprisingly enough, mall operators aren't that upset about the big department store anchors being phased out. It turns out that the department store anchors historically have been paying a lot less per square foot than other specialty stores. For example, on average, big department stores might pay three dollars per square foot where specialty stores can pay as much as thirty dollars per square foot. So the replacement of the department stores isn't as bad as it might seem. But what is going to take the place of the department stores is a little bit unclear right now. Certainly there are big box retailers like a Target that could come in, but these big box retailers have to adjust the way that they're made for malls. If you think about it, you usually don't take an elevator to get to a Target or take an escalator. Vicki Curry>> And usually you don't go to a Target in a mall. Rachel Brown>> Right, and you usually don't go to a Target in a mall, exactly. So these big box retailers are going to have to adjust to being in malls. But mall operators have other options. They could divvy up the department store space to smaller specialty stores or they could use that space to make lifestyle centers that are these days very popular, more outside space. You know, try to find other ways to use that area. Vicki Curry>> You mean, like restaurants or movie theaters? Rachel Brown>> Exactly. They could make it smaller spaces and a lot of those spaces are what now attract people to malls. The old department stores really aren't attracting people to malls the way that restaurants or movie theaters or something like that is. Vicki Curry>> So do you think this merger is really going to have an impact on our economy here in Southern California? Rachel Brown>> Well, the impact is sort of unclear because it's not like so many stores are going to be closing. I mean, it's not hundreds and hundreds of stores that are going to be closing. It's really only, you know, seventy throughout the country. I mean, the impact to the employees is still unclear because Federated has said that it won't announce any cuts until next year. These department stores are going to be replaced and the malls themselves are not suffering. In fact, per square footage, their sales have gone up over last year about four percent. The malls are still places where people go even if they don't go to the department stores, so they still have a critical role in our economy where people shop. It's just that the department stores themselves as anchors of the malls have really changed. Vicki Curry>> As you're saying, it seems that the model of the department store as the anchor of a mall has really changed. That's really something in the past. It seems like we're at the end of an era. Rachel Brown>> Yes. In fact, it used to be, when my parents were growing up in Los Angeles, that department stores were really glamorous. They were a place you went to that you dressed up for. You know, there were a few things that you dressed up for. Going on an airplane and going to a department store (laughter). Now that's really not so much the case. In fact, the I. Magnins of the world, the Bullocks of the world, those are casualties of Federated and now we see Robinson's-May also being a casualty of Federated. So Federated has really, in some ways, changed the landscape and left behind these dinosaurs and memories of the days when, you know, department stores used to be truly glamorous things. Vicki Curry>> Rachel Brown of the Los Angeles Business Journal, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us. Rachel Brown>> Thank you. To send a comment or a question to our program, you can reach us by mail at this address: Life and Times 4401 Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, California 90027 You can also call our viewer comment line (323) 953-5555) or contact us the fast way by e-mail at kcet.org. Larry Mantle>> Welcome to FilmWeek on Life and Times. I'm Larry Mantle of 89.3 KPCC. Our first film this week is from director John Singleton and features the story of four grown adoptees who seek to avenge their mother's murder. The film is "Four Brothers". [Film Clip] Larry Mantle>> I'm joined this week by critics Henry Sheehan of henrysheehan.com, and Peter Rainer, the past president of the National Society of Film Critics. Peter, what did you think? Peter Rainer>> Well, "Four Brothers" has an intriguing premise. Four kids who are adopted by kind of a caretaker in Detroit. These are all very tough kids who couldn't find a home anywhere else in the foster families, so they were adopted by this kindly woman who is then murdered in a grocery store assassination-style killing. So the four brothers come together to somehow figure out who did this and take care of the killers. But in the end, the notion that these four kids who are in a sense rescued by this woman and are trying to avenge her death is just glossed over with a lot of typical action pyrotechnics. The scene where they actually see her murder in the video monitor of the store, there's hardly any reaction at all really in what should have been, which I think is typical of the coldness of this film. Larry Mantle>> Henry, what did you think? Henry Sheehan>> Well, if you're going to do a revenge film, it's got to have a lot of passion, a lot of anger. It has to be really visceral and I think one of the problems with this movie is that John Carpenter shows too much good taste -- excuse me, John Singleton, the director, shows too much good taste. John Carpenter would never be accused of doing that (laughter) and maybe he should have directed this movie because, when you see the brothers taking their vengeance, it's done with either certain things are shown off-screen or there are a whole bunch of jokes told so that you realize that nothing too bad is going to happen to someone involved. So when Singleton wants to bring on a big violent scene, you know, it doesn't really have the cold-blooded killer nature that a movie like this really needs. You know, when you're going to take your vengeance and you're going to take it violently, you really got to take it and that's what this film fails to do. Larry Mantle>> Our second film this week is the neo-Gothic thriller, "Asylum", starring Natasha Richardson, Martin Csokas and Ian McKellen. [Film Clip] Larry Mantle>> Henry, what did you think of "Asylum"? Henry Sheehan>> Well, I was kind of mixed on it. It's an interesting premise taken from Patrick McGrath's novel. Natasha Richardson plays the wife of a psychiatrist who's taking up a new position at an insane asylum, a rest home, whatever you want to call it, with seriously disturbed patients. They have one wing which has a cell door to it. Well, no sooner does she get there, then they take a kind of tortured artist who's killed his lover and put him to work rebuilding a greenhouse on her property, and she and the guy start an affair. Lurking in the background is this guy's doctor played by Ian McKellen who may be kind of evil, kind of manipulating. You know, the book was a lot about the intensity of the relationship between Richardson's character and the artist-killer. They take that away here and put it onto Ian McKellen's character as this kind of god-like manipulator and it doesn't really work. That makes the movie kind of cold and dispassionate and, you know, why are you watching a movie like that? Larry Mantle>> What did you think, Peter? Peter Rainer>> I was pretty mixed on it too, but I did think that Ian McKellen was pretty terrific in it and I liked the fact that he kind of was manipulating everybody in this picture to his own end. There was something diabolical in a clinical way that I think is recognizable to a lot of people who work for corporations or hospitals (laughter). You know, there's a certain personality type that he captures perfectly. But the torrid affair between the two lovers, I think, is a bit much. You don't get enough of a sense of what she's really all about. It's just kind of hot Monkey love and that's all it is and it doesn't quite jive with the diabolical, you know, conniving of McKellen which is a whole other type of movie and a much better one. Larry Mantle>> Our final film this week is the documentary, "Grizzly Man". The long-awaited film is from German director, Werner Herzog, and it tells the story of Timothy Treadwell, a man who lived among some of the most dangerous grizzly bears in Alaska and wrote about his feats. [Film Clip] Larry Mantle>> Well, Peter, "Grizzly Man" has gotten a lot of attention. What did you think of it? Peter Rainer>> It's a fascinating movie. Werner Herzog is one of the world's great directors. He's also one of the world's strangest directors and it's almost as if this story were made for him. He came across all of this footage of Timothy Treadwell and weaved it into a movie which uses predominantly Treadwell's own often very beautiful and very odd nature photography of him with these grizzlies often in dangerous proximity and the rest is interviews with family members and people who worked in the conservation park and so forth. What I find upsetting about this movie beyond the usual reasons is that I'm not sure that Herzog would have made this film if Treadwell and his girlfriend had not been devoured by bears in the end. There's a kind of, not sadistic, but unseemly aspect to the movie. If Treadwell, for instance, had simply retired and handed his footage to Herzog or had disappeared and Herzog found the footage, I'm not sure he would have made the movie. But there's a kind of fatalism that's built into the movie that's, you know, prime Herzog and it makes for a truly unsettling experience. Larry Mantle>> Henry? Henry Sheehan>> Well, Herzog is drawn to characters who have some kind of avocation in which they go beyond the normal bounds of enthusiasm, let's say, and I'm not sure he would have heard of Treadwell if Treadwell hadn't been eaten by the bears. Early in the movie, in the voice-over narration, Herzog says that where Treadwell saw harmony in nature, Herzog himself only sees chaos. I think that tension between the two viewpoints is really what carries the movie along. There's a great point near the end as we're getting nearer and nearer to Treadwell's death, which we know is going to form the end of the movie, in which Treadwell has taken a close-up of a bear's face. He anthropomorphizes that, you know, here's this kind of member of our family of nature and Herzog looks and says "I look in his eyes and I only see boredom and hunger." I think that Herzog gets the last word that way, but again, that tension makes the movie quite enthralling. Larry Mantle>> Thanks for joining us for another FilmWeek on Life and Times. I'm Larry Mantle of 89.3 KPCC for our critics, Henry Sheehan of henrysheehan.com, and Peter Rainer, past president of the National Society of Film Critics. We invite you to join us next week at this time for another FilmWeek on Life and Times. Val>> And there is a full hour of FilmWeek on KPCC radio every Friday morning at 11:00 a.m. And that's our program. I'm Val Zavala. For everyone at Life and Times, thanks for watching. We'll see you next time. Life and Times was made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education. And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg. Val>> Next time on Life and Times -- Valley Fever is a disease most people know little about, but it's devastating and possibly fatal. >> He just went downhill. He started having strokes, he lost excessive amounts of weight, had bad skin rashes. Finally, he literally faded away mentally and physically and was gone in January of 2001. Val>> That's next time on Life and Times. Sponsored in part by:  | |
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