Bastards of the Party

Cle Sloan grew up in Los Angeles. He belonged to one chapter of the Bloods. One day he read about the history of his own neighbourhood. What he read led him to this film. The documentary is about the gangs of Los Angeles. It starts in the nineteen fifties. The first Black groups were formed in those years. They were formed to protect themselves. Then the sixties came. Political organisations grew strong. Those organisations were then broken up. By the documentary’s account the gangs were born in that gap. The film’s title comes from a line by a historian. The story reaches into the eighties and nineties. The number of people killed is very high. The film treats them as people rather than as figures. Sloan narrates the ninety five minute film himself, an American production he finished in 2005.