Leimert Park - South Central's Cultural Oasis

Jeannette Lindsay’s film, LEIMERT PARK: The Story Of A Village In South Central Los Angeles, proclaims to be “a universal tale of the struggles and triumphs of artists everywhere and of the power and importance of art and music in our lives” and, believe me, it is!
During a course on jazz history at Antioch University in 1997, Jeannette was invited to a performance by vocalist Dwight Trible at the World Stage in Leimert Park. It was a life changing experience.
“It was completely under the radar of the media.” she reflects. ”This was a real art and real music springing organically from a community. It wasn't about the money. It was about self-expression and community and beauty. So I decided (with a great amount of naiveté) that I would document it and tell the story of this community to Los Angeles, to the United States, to the world.”
While South Central is globally synonymous with Crips and Bloods and defined as the epicentre of Gangsta rap, this movie delves into Leimert Park’s unique history and offers a totally different perspective.
In the Eighties the area was prone to drug and gang activity but the Rodney King uprising in April 1992 was to change all that. For five days and five nights, a group of dedicated merchants and artists stood guard to protect their livelihood from the fires that raged around them. It was Fifth Street Dick’s, a coffee house which had opened in Leimert Park only a few days earlier and run by Richard Fulton, a formerly homeless man who had been living on Los Angeles' skid row, that became the place to gather, to talk and to heal.

For Richard Fulton, jazz provided a source of harmony for the community and through interviews with Horace Tapscott, Billy Higgins, and singer Dwight Trible the film illuminates how freedom, acceptance and inclusiveness flows through the music.
Kamau Daaood’s opening words define Leimert Park as a “sacred place and a gathering spot for an army of healers” and from the dance studio to chess players to the hip hop of Project Blowed we are immersed in the passion and creativity of the people who shaped a future out of its decay.
There are universal lessons in this film that we can all learn from. Reflecting on the decision to put tables out on the sidewalk outside Fifth Street Dick’s Jeannette says, “To me, it is the small gestures that are the most powerful symbols of resistance. I believe this for a few reasons. It shows the difference that one individual can make in a community and it is the accumulation of small gestures that over time creates powerful and lasting change.”
Ironically, the success of this community has guaranteed its demise. Hit with a combination of several untimely deaths among the community’s key figures, the involvement of local politicians and LA real estate frenzy, Leimert Park arrived at a difficult crossroads and, in the film, nothing signifies this better than the heart rending scene where Kamau describes how one day, out of the blue, the local council brutally cut down the rows of fabulous palm trees.
Seek out this film and join with Jeannette Lindsay in celebrating the deep spirit which helped transform a few blocks of modest storefronts into a cultural oasis.

Paul Bradshaw / Straight No Chaser
Big respek to Andy Thomas for access to his interview with Jeannette Lindsay
Photo credit - Jared Zagha

LEIMERT PARK: The Story Of A Village In South Central Los Angeles (USA/2008)
Directed by Jeanette Lindsay
Running Time: 88 minutes
Subtitle Languages: French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish
www.leimertparkmovie.com

Contact
Film Baby
6635 N. Baltimore #234
Portland, OR 97203
Tel 503.255.1847
www.filmbaby.com
info@leimertparkmovie.com

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