Director’s Statement / Interviewee Bios / Reviews
Credits / Social

When the LA riots/uprising/civil unrest exploded in 1992, images of destruction beamed across the globe with little context as to why these events had occurred. TV news focused on African Americans, Latinos, and Koreans as both victims and perpetrators of violence, and footage of the “first multicultural riots” locked each group within a stereotype.

As a Korean American, these images profoundly shaped my understanding of race in America and the need for people of color to tell our own stories. We hope K-TOWN‘92 offers a path to better understand Los Angeles before and after 1992. We intend to expand the archive of stories moving forward.

Abraham Torres, captured images of the first night of rioting in South LA. Some of his collection can be seen at www.rumbleskout3.com
Alan Nakagawa is a Japanese American artist who has lived in Koreatown since the 1960s. During the riots, he worked for Metro, managing their art projects.
After a Nightline interview in 1992, attorney Angela Oh became the de facto spokesperson for the Korean American community. Today, she is a civil rights mediator and teaches Zen meditation as part of her social justice practice.
Ann Kaneko, a third-generation Angeleno grew up in the Crenshaw neighborhood of LA and was a UCLA student at the time of the LA Riots.
Annetta Wells is the political director for SEIU Local 2015. As a South LA youth, she saw the beating of Reginald Denny from her school bus. The questions raised by the riots led her to become a youth organizer.
Audley Simpson came to the U.S. from Jamaica and has worked as a cinematographer and in the construction industry. He regularly plays tennis at a local Koreatown park.
Aurea Montes-Rodriguez was a high school student living in Compton during the civil unrest. Now, she serves as the Vice President of Community Coalition, an organization that works to build healthier neighborhoods across South LA.
Brenda Stevenson is a UCLA historian, whose book The Contested Murder of Latasha Harlins explores the larger historical narratives and socio-economic forces underpinning the civil unrest.
During the LA uprising, Carlos Vaquerano worked as a community activist at CARECEN (Central American Resource Center). He is now executive director of SALEF (Salvadoran American Leadership and Educational Fund).
Danny Park co-founded the Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance (KIWA) one month before the LA riots. KIWA serves both Latino and Korean working immigrants.
Hector Tobar covered the Rodney King beating and riots for the Los Angeles Times. His latest book is Deep Down Dark: The Untold Stories of 33 Men Buried in a Chilean Mine, and the Miracle That Set Them Free. His novel The Tattooed Soldier is set against the backdrop of 1992 LA.
Hugo Garcia is a resident of Koreatown and grew up hearing stories of the civil unrest through his parents, both Central American immigrants. He is currently the political coordinator at Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance.
Hyungwon Kang grew up in Koreatown, and covered the riots as an LA Times photographer. He is currently senior photo editor for Thomson Reuters.
Jin Ho Lee was a field reporter for Radio Korea in 1992 and now manages television, internet and business development for the Radio Korea Media Group.
John Lee was an LA Times Metro reporter who was called up from the San Diego bureau to cover Koreatown during the riots. He eventually left the newspaper to become a freelance writer.
Kang Seung Lee is an LA artist who watched the civil unrest unfold in South Korea while in middle school. His art series “Leave of Absence” commemorates the uprising and critiques racialized imagery from the civil unrest.
As the rioting neared Koreatown, Kat Kim helped her mother pack up her family’s restaurant, ChinGoGae, before her uncle and other armed Korean men barricaded the strip mall to protect the businesses from looting.
Katynja McCory, a native of South LA, was inspired to become a youth organizer at Community Coalition following the LA uprising.
Leslie Shim, age 4 when the riots broke out, discovered her family’s dry cleaning businesses were destroyed during the riots while researching the event for a college paper.
Matt Holzman, currently a KCRW radio producer, was there at the time of the riots as the station learned to navigate coverage of the event.
Meena Nanji was a student at Cal Arts, who was arrested with dozens of others in downtown LA during a peaceful protest against the Rodney King verdict.
Mohammed Sanfaz, immigrated from Libya and began working as a security guard in the 1980s. In 1992, he led a team of mostly Latino and Middle Eastern men to prevent his Koreatown workplace, HK Market, from getting looted.
Myung Shim Lee owned a shop in the Slauson Swap Meet in 1992. She is now works with senior citizens at the Korean Resource Center.
Richard Choi is a co-founder of Radio Korea, which served as a pivotal breaking news source and live hotline for the Korean immigrant community during the unrest.
Ruben Tapia is a woodworker in South LA, where he has lived for decades, and a Spanish-language reporter for community-based Radio Bilingue.
In 1992, Sylvia Castillo was working at Community Coalition to reduce the number of liquor stores in South LA. She now directs the Praxis Project, an advocacy group working toward social change.
Tammerlin Drummond was an LA Times reporter in 1992 when she was called up from the Orange County office to become a street reporter. She is currently a writer for the East Bay Times in Oakland, CA.
Tina Nieto is the area commanding officer of West Los Angeles and the first Hispanic female captain in the LAPD. In 1992, she was called in from Venice Beach to patrol Koreatown and South LA during the civil unrest.
Tyree Boyd-Pates is the History Curator and Program Manager at the California African American Museum. Born and raised in Koreatown, LA, he curated the exhibit: No Justice, No Peace: LA 1992 for the 25th anniversary of the Los Angeles Uprising.
Taiji Miyagawa is a videographer and community activist who filmed much of the 1992 Archival footage provided by Visual Communications for the K-TOWN ’92 site. With Linda Mabalot and Akilah Oliver, he went into Koreatown and South Los Angeles in the aftermath of the uprising and filmed community interviews and reactions, including the peace march and rally in Koreatown.
Reviews

“[T]he project gives voice to the people who lived through the tumultuous uprising — beyond the iconic images of looters and vandals, shopkeepers on rooftops with guns, and mayhem in the streets from angry mobs destroying their own city.”

Jen Yamato, Los Angeles Times

“These are the stories that the media didn't know or didn't bother to tell.”

Angry Asian Man blog

“Really incredible and interesting documentary on Sa-I-Gu... viscerally direct.”

Jeff Yang, They Call Us Bruce podcast

Ktown‘92 tells the stories that I’ve been waiting over 25 years to hear. Growing up in California, even as a child I knew that media portrayals of the L.A. rebellion didn’t reflect the lived experiences of real people. This film diligently unearths the voices that have slipped through the cracks, offering a most compelling and accurate recollection of this important historic moment.”

Adriel Luis, Curator, Smithsonian APA Center

  • Project Director:
    Grace Lee
  • Producers:
    Eurie Chung
    Grace Lee
  • Coordinating Producer:
    Jin Yoo-Kim
  • Executive Producer:
    Kathryn Lo
  • Executive Producer for CAAM:
    Stephen Gong
  • Consulting Producers:
    Andrea Meller
    Mustafa Rony Zeno
  • Associate Producer:
    Lya Lim
  • Cinematographers:
    Jerry Henry
    Ann Kaneko
    Christian Bruno
    Judy Phu
  • Sound Recordists:
    Veronica Lopez
    Chris Ward
  • Editors:
    Eurie Chung
    Aldo Velasco
  • Assistant Editors:
    Emma Berliner
    Sarah Garrahan
    Eugene Yi
  • Legal:
    Donaldson + Callif, LLP
  • Composer:
    Vivek Maddala
  • Production Assistance:
    Sandra Hamada
  • Interns:
    Vanessa Kovacs
    Teofanny Saragi
  • Identity & Website:
    Folder Studio
  • Special Thanks:
    Julia Meltzer, Francis Cullado, Abe Ferrer, POV Digital Lab, Jason Brush, Kamal Sinclair, Don Young, Chi-hui Yang, John Lightfoot, Cara Mertes, Kelly Weldon, Philip Rhie, Flash Cuts, Chris Hastings, Adnaan Wasey, Community Coalition.
  • Get In Touch:
    Email, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram
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1992 Interviews courtesy Visual Communications Photographic and Moving Picture Archive.

This project was made possible with support from California Humanities, a non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities and The Ford Foundation.

K-TOWN‘92 is a presentation of the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM), with major funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

© 2017 LeeLee Films, Inc.