41st & Central: The Untold Story of the Black Panthers

SPECIAL SCREENING:
41st & Central: The Untold Story of the L.A. Black Panthers

Following the manhunt and death of Christopher Dorner,
Award-winning documentary chronicling the LAPDs
relationship with Blacks in Los Angeles gets special screening

LOS ANGELES, CA – On Tues. Feb. 19 at 6 p.m. the acclaimed award-winning indie documentary about the Los Angeles Police Department and the Southern California Chapter of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense 41st & Central: The Untold Story of the L.A. Black Panthers will screen at the El Camino College Marsee Auditorium. Located at 16007 South Crenshaw Boulevard in Torrance, the screening follows in the wake of the Christopher Dorner manhunt and chronicles the LAPDs relationship with Blacks in Los Angeles under Chief William Parker up to Chief Daryl Gates. The special engagement screening is free and open to the public and is sponsored by the El Camino College Office of Staff and Student Diversity and the Black History Month Committee. Following the film there will be a Q&A with the film’s director, producers, and members of the cast, including a look at the LAPD then and now as it relates to the Christopher Dorner manhunt.

41st & Central: The Untold Story of the L.A. Black Panthers documents the beginnings of the LAPDs SWAT unit with the December 9, 1969 four-hour confrontation and shoot out with members of the Black Panthers at the then Los Angeles Black Panther headquarters in South Los Angeles on 41st Street and Central Avenue.

The film features new and exclusive interviews from former Black Panther party leaders Elaine Brown, and Kathleen Cleaver, Los Angeles City Councilmember and former L.A.P.D. Police Chief Bernard Parks, and the last on-camera interview of the late Geronimo Ji Jagga.

The film is the first part in a documentary series from filmmaker Gregory Everett that follows the relationship of the LAPD and Blacks. The film explores the Black Panther ethos, its conflict with the L.A.P.D. and the US Organization, as well as the events that shaped the complicated and often contradictory legacy of the L.A. chapter.

Using exclusive interviews with former Black Panther Party members along with archival footage detailing the history of racism in Los Angeles, including the Watt’s Uprising, 41st & Central: The Untold Story of the L.A. Black Panthers has been called the most in-depth study ever of the murders of L.A. Chapter founder Alprentice “Bunchy” Carter and John Huggins at U.C.L.A. The documentary includes first hand accounts of the Party’s formation as told by the original surviving members and eyewitness accounts of the murders at U.C.L.A. Also featured in the film are former Black Panther members Ericka Huggins, Roland & Ronald Freeman, Wayne Pharr, Jeffrey Everett, Long John Washington, US Organization member Wesley Kabaila, U.C.L.A. Professor Scot Brown, and Bernie Morris, oldest brother of Bunchy Carter.

For more information, please visit www.41central.com.