Bastards of the Party

Last updated
Bastards of the Party
Directed by Cle Sloan
Produced by Antoine Fuqua
Narrated byCle Sloan
Cinematography
Edited by Keith Salmon
Music by Joong-Han Chung
Release date
Running time
95 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Bastards of the Party is a 2005 American documentary film directed by former Bloods gang-member Cle Sloan and produced by Antoine Fuqua. The film explores the creation of two of Los Angeles's most notorious gangs, the Crips and the Bloods, from the perspective of the Los Angeles community. The film also denounces gang violence and presents meaningful solutions from former gang members to stop this problem.

Contents

Production

During a term in jail, Cle Sloan read the book City of Quartz by Mike Davis and found his neighborhood of Athens Park on a map depicting LAPD gang hot spots of 1972. The book's account fueled Sloan to ask questions of how the gangs got started, only to receive speculation and more questions from his fellow gang members. Sloan decided to research the subject himself.

The title of the film comes from a passage in City of Quartz that reads: "As even The [Los Angeles] Times recognized, the decimation of the Panthers led directly to a recrudescence of gangs in the early 1970s. 'Crippin,' the most extraordinary new gang phenomenon was a bastard offspring of the Panthers' former charisma, filling the void left by the LAPD SWAT teams." [2]

The documentary appeared at the 2005 Tribeca Film Festival and at the 2006 Hollywood Black Film Festival. The television premiere aired on February 6, 2007, on HBO. Over 90 percent of the documentary was shot in 1996.

Content

Bastards of the Party explores various influences on California African-American gang culture. The starting point is the crisis of black leadership that marked the end of the Civil Rights Movement, particularly the government-instigated rivalry between the Black Panther Party and the Us Organization. Movements based on collective action gave way to individualism inspired by heroes of blaxploitation films like Super Fly .

In this atmosphere, Raymond Washington created the concept of a gang of the new generation that went from "the cradle to the grave" and was joined by Stanley "Tookie" Williams in the formation of the Crips. The collapse of domestic industry left black youth with few opportunities to escape from gang activity, which became a money-making operation based around the illegal drug trade. Tupac Shakur's song, "So Many Tears", is played at the end portion of the documentary.

Related Research Articles

<i>Boyz n the Hood</i> 1991 film directed by John Singleton

Boyz n the Hood is a 1991 American coming-of-age crime drama film written and directed by John Singleton in his feature directorial debut. It stars Cuba Gooding Jr., Ice Cube, Nia Long, Morris Chestnut, Tyra Ferrell, Laurence Fishburne, Regina King, and Angela Bassett. Boyz n the Hood follows Tre Styles, who is sent to live with his father Furious Styles (Fishburne) in South Central Los Angeles, surrounded by the neighborhood's booming gang culture. The film's title is a double entendre: a play on the term boyhood and a reference to the 1987 Eazy-E rap song of the same name, written by Ice Cube.

<i>Training Day</i> 2001 film directed by Antoine Fuqua

Training Day is a 2001 American crime thriller film directed by Antoine Fuqua and written by David Ayer. It stars Denzel Washington as Alonzo Harris and Ethan Hawke as Jake Hoyt, two LAPD narcotics officers over a 24-hour period in the gang-ridden neighborhoods of Westlake, Echo Park, and South Central Los Angeles. It also features Scott Glenn, Eva Mendes, Cliff Curtis, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, and Macy Gray in supporting roles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bloods</span> Street gang founded in Los Angeles, California

The Bloods are a primarily African-American street gang founded in Los Angeles, California. The gang is widely known for its rivalry with the Crips. It is identified by the red color worn by its members and by particular gang symbols, including distinctive hand signs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raymond Washington</span> American gangster

Raymond Lee Washington was an American gangster, known as the founder of the Crips gang in Los Angeles. Washington formed the Crips as a minor street gang in the late 1960s in South Los Angeles, becoming a prominent local crime boss. In 1971, Washington formed an alliance with Stanley "Tookie" Williams, establishing the Crips as the first major African-American street gang in Los Angeles, and served as one of the co-leaders. In 1974, Washington was convicted of robbery and received a five-year prison sentence, during which his leadership and influence in the Crips declined.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black Guerrilla Family</span> African-American prison and street gang

The Black Guerrilla Family is an African-American black power prison and street gang founded in 1966 by George Jackson, George "Big Jake" Lewis, and W. L. Nolen while they were incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison in Marin County, California.

<i>Biggie & Tupac</i> 2002 film

Biggie & Tupac is a 2002 feature-length documentary film about the murdered American rappers Christopher "Notorious B.I.G." Wallace and Tupac Shakur by Nick Broomfield.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Athens, California</span> Unincorporated community in California, United States

Athens is an unincorporated community in the South Los Angeles region of Los Angeles County, California, numbering 9,101 people in the 2000 census. It is the home site of Los Angeles Southwest College.

<i>Colors</i> (film) 1988 film directed by Dennis Hopper

Colors is a 1988 American police procedural action crime film starring Sean Penn and Robert Duvall, and directed by Dennis Hopper. The film takes place in the gang ridden neighborhoods of Los Angeles: late-1980s South Central Los Angeles, Echo Park, Westlake and East Los Angeles. The film centers on Bob Hodges (Duvall), an experienced Los Angeles Police Department C.R.A.S.H. officer, and his rookie partner, Danny McGavin (Penn), who try to stop the gang violence between the Bloods, the Crips, and Hispanic street gangs. Colors relaunched Hopper as a director 19 years after Easy Rider, and inspired discussion over its depiction of gang life and gang violence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crips</span> Street gang from Los Angeles, California

The Crips is an alliance of street gangs that is based in the coastal regions of Southern California. Founded in Los Angeles, California, in 1969, mainly by Raymond Washington and Stanley Williams, the Crips were initially a single alliance between two autonomous gangs; it is now a loosely-connected network of individual "sets", often engaged in open warfare with one another. Traditionally, since around 1973, its members have worn blue clothing.

The Watts truce was a 1992 peace agreement among rival street gangs in Los Angeles, California, declared in the neighborhood of Watts. The truce was reached just days before the 1992 Los Angeles riots and, although not universally adhered to, was a major factor in the decline of street violence in the city between the 1990s and 2010s.

Black P. Stones Jungles is a division ("set") of the Bloods street gang in some parts of Los Angeles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Zinzun</span> American politician

Michael Zinzun was an African American Black Panther and anti-police brutality activist.

<i>Dead Homiez</i> 1993 American film directed by Billy Wright

Dead Homiez was filmed on location in South Central Los Angeles. The film stars the Notorious B.I.G. and 2Pac. The movie also stars Treyvon Green and Cynthia Berry. The director of the movie was Billy Wright.

Cle "Bone" Shaheed Sloan is an American activist, actor and documentary director from Los Angeles County, California. While still a member of Athens Park Bloods, a Los Angeles street gang, Sloan worked to reform gang culture to put an end to gang violence from the inside.

Crime in Los Angeles has varied throughout time, reaching peaks between the 1970s and 1990s. Since the early 2020s, crime has increased in Los Angeles as well as elsewhere in the United States.

<i>Why We Bang</i> 2006 American film

Why We Bang is a 2006 independent documentary film that documents the historical background of LA's Bloods and Crips gangs. The film follows several current and former members of the Bloods and Crips of Los Angeles through interviews.

<i>Crips and Bloods: Made in America</i> 2008 American film

Crips and Bloods: Made in America is a 2008 documentary by Stacy Peralta that examines the rise of the Crips and Bloods, prominent gangs in America. The documentary focuses on the external factors that caused African-American youth to turn to gangs and questions the political and law enforcement response to the rise of gang culture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jasmyne Cannick</span> American journalist (born 1977)

Jasmyne Ariel Cannick is an American politician, journalist, and pop culture, race issues and politics commentator. She is also known for her work as an advocate for underrepresented and marginalized communities. She was selected as one of ESSENCE Magazine's 25 Women Shaping the World, KCET's Southern California Seven Women of Vision, one of Los Angeles' Most Fascinating Angelenos by the L.A. Weekly and as one of the Out100 in 2019.

Imam Mujahid Abdul-Karim is an African-American convert to Islam, who is best known for his involvement and "spearheading" of the April 26, 1992 Watts Gang Truce between the four influential rival gangs— Watts Hacienda Village Bloods, Grape Street Watts Crips, Bounty Hunter Watts Bloods, and PJ Watts Crips. He is imam of Masjid Al Rasul mosque in Watts, Los Angeles and the leader of The Imam Mahdi Movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of the Notorious B.I.G.</span> Unsolved murder of American rapper

Christopher Wallace, an American rapper known professionally as the Notorious B.I.G., was murdered in a drive-by shooting in the early hours of March 9, 1997, in Los Angeles, California. He was 24 years old.

References

  1. "Bastards of the Party Review". Variety.
  2. Mike Davis, City of Quartz, London: Verso, 1990. p. 298