TV REVIEW : Camcorder Footage on L.A. Riots

If the ultimate purpose of Bill Kurtis’ report, “Los Angeles: Anatomy of a Riot” (at 6 and 10 tonight on the Arts & Entertainment Channel) is to show how home video not only helped affect the unrest but also defined it, then it’s making a statement. But Kurtis doesn’t bring viewers any closer to an understanding of how civil anger spilled over into chaos.

As a document on the democratization of video, “Anatomy of a Riot” shows clearly how citizens with camcorders can get to places the press can’t. This is no better shown than in the report’s most fascinating section: the origins of the looting and burning at 71st Street and Normandie. For excruciatingly long minutes, neighbors and police face off; then, a man is arrested. A tension quietly builds, and a photojournalist flees while his car is attacked. Only then does it strike us that the images we’re seeing are being produced by someone in the neighborhood, free to record at will.

This sense builds as more video is shown of the first looting (such as the very first blow, against a window at Tom’s Liquor store) and car attacks. There were several before Reginald Denny was pulled from his truck, and the incriminating video evidence here against “The L.A. Four” raises significant questions about how and if this report may affect the foursome’s impending trial.

After this, Kurtis presents a montage of painfully familiar footage of burning, confused cops and fatigued firemen. The only remarkable moments here are snippets showing blithe young looters and concerned young volunteer firefighters. Both groups are poor people of color. What made them respond in such opposite ways? Kurtis’ “investigation” stops woefully short of exploring this question, and ends up being just another hour of garish spectacle.