A through line that takes us from my hometown of Los Angeles, California, out of the country to Managua, Nicaragua, and all the way to the top of the political ladder in Washington, D.C. Yet, I still did not know that at some point I would have a chance to play a part in making the documentary that would tell the definitive version of how it all went down.
At age 16 I still remember the hearings in South Central Los Angeles, and the pamphlets passed around by local activist groups telling the community what had happened.
So when the “Dark Alliance” story written by Gary Webb was published in 1996 implicating that this all might have come with some level of government involvement, put simply it was unbelievable. I grew up in a city of Los Angeles that had been ravaged by gangs, riots and none other than crack cocaine. As one of the producers I looked to my life and its arch as a guide in helping frame the story’s narrative.
A tale bigger than life of drug kingpins, government scandal and devastation of the black community, was one that was personal to me as a filmmaker and African American. It is a rare instance where art and life truly run parallel, our recently Emmy nominated film “Freeway: Crack in the System” that was presented by Al Jazeera was one of those moments.
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