‘The Fire This Time’

This 1994 documentary by Randy Holland (pictured) has done such a thorough job of researching the roots of the 1992 L.A. riots that the event itself takes on a quality of tragic inevitability. The ever-worsening plight of African Americans trapped in ghettos is so familiar, so omnipresent, that many no longer respond to it. Holland, however, demolishes indifference, first by sketching the difficult history of African Americans in Southern California, and then by letting the people of South Central L.A. speak for themselves (Showtime Saturday at 8 p.m.).