LETITFALL

 

It was already set to premiere on ABC on April 28, but John Ridley’s “Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982-1992” will first receive a theatrical release a week earlier, Friday April 21, it was announced a week ago.

We learned this afternoon that the film will open in New York and Los Angeles on Friday, April 21, 2017.

This will mark the first theatrical release for ABC News.

It’s a bit early in the year for consideration, but one wonders whether ABC and Ridley have their sites on a potential Oscar nomination for the film, hence what would essentially count as an Oscar-qualifying run, one week before the film premieres on television. Oscar contenders are typically released during the last quarter of the year, but, as you’ll recall, this year’s Best Documentary Oscar winner (“O.J.: Made in America”) received a similar limited theatrical run in May 2016.

Pegged to the 25th anniversary of the Los Angeles uprising, the feature documentary, which takes a unique and in-depth look at the years and events leading up to the city-wide violence that began April 29, 1992, when the verdict was announced in the Rodney King case, will air on Friday, April 28 (9:00 – 11:00 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network (a broadcast length version of the documentary).

Produced in partnership with ABC News’ Lincoln Square Productions, “Let It Fall” delves beyond the conflicts between law enforcement and the black community to look at tensions across the city as a whole; it traces the roots of the civil unrest to a decade before the uprising. The documentary features exclusive interviews with eyewitnesses and people directly involved in the events from diverse neighborhoods across the city, including black, white, Hispanic, Korean, and Japanese Americans.

A team of veteran ABC News journalists join Ridley in the production of “Let It Fall,” led by producer Jeanmarie Condon, who has been honored for her work on documentaries and in-depth coverage of current events with multiple DuPont, Peabody, Murrow, and Emmy Awards.

“Let It Fall” is written and directed by John Ridley. Produced by Jeanmarie Condon and Ridley. Co-producer is Melia Patria and producer is Fatima Curry. Editing is by Colin Rich and cinematography by Sam Painter and Ben McCoy. Original score by Mark Isham.

Ridley is a busy content creator, with ABC’s Emmy-winning series “American Crime” under his contro, as well as his upcoming limited series “Guerilla,” with Idris Elba, Freida Pinto, and Babou Ceesay, which premieres on Showtime in April 16.

The documentary’s explosive first trailer premiered this afternoon. Watch it below: