It’s apparently L.A. Riots day — tonight sees the debut of John Ridley’s “Let It Fall,” a documentary pegged to the 25th anniversary of the uprising (which kicked off with the acquittal of the officers caught on video beating Rodney King on April 29th, 1992), on ABC after a brief theatrical run. And the riots will also be captured later in the year with Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s “Kings” with Daniel Craig and Halle Berry.
But we get a first glimpse today of a very different perspective on those events, with the first trailer for buzzy Sundance award-winner “Gook,” the first feature from director Justin Chon. The winner of the NEXT Audience Award at January’s festival, Chon’s film looks at the riots through the eyes of two brothers running the family shoe store in South Central L.A. (with Chon taking one of the roles himself).
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Shot in striking black-and-white and influenced by early Spike Lee, it won rave responses at Park City, and looks pretty damn promising from the first footage here. Samuel Goldwyn Films will be releasing the film on August 1st. Watch the trailer below.