News & Screenings
At the end of 2023, the Riot team got some great news and some terrible news. The National Educational Television Association (NETA) has accepted the film for distribution to 370 public television stations across the US, starting in 2025. Just days after this news was announced, we learned of the passing of our narrator, Andre Braugher. Andre was a great asset to the project, providing not only his incredible voice and prodigious talent, but his perspective on how to best explain racial conflicts. He will be sorely missed.
To find out where and when you can see Riot, check back here, or sign up below for the film’s newsletter. The long wait is coming to an end, and this story will finally be told around the world.
While many of us view the events of 1967 as a great lesson, current events show us that painful and violent conflict will still erupt in various places around our country when people fail to see eye to eye. With that in mind, RIOT has been updated to include commentary on the rioting that has occurred in many American cities in the past year. While the Newark riots are now more than 50 years in the past, the story behind them is as relevant today as it ever was.
The effort to publicize the film made a great leap forward when the film's director, Kevin McLaughlin was interviewed for a special edition of the public TV program, One on One with Steve Adubato. It's part of a special series the show is doing called Newark at a Crossroads.
Steve and Kevin discussed several key topics related to the film and the director's connection to Newark, including the Newark Fire Department and the Vailsburg section of the city. They talked about the fact that recent events in Ferguson and Baltimore make this the perfect time for the world to look back on what occurred in Newark all those years ago. They touched on the late Dr. Clem Price, a key contributor to the film, and several ongoing controversies addressed in the film, such as whether or not first-responders were subject to sniper fire, and what the events should be called - a riot or a rebellion? The segment also includes two short clips from the film that have not been seen by the public prior to this.
The show first aired on on NJTV throughout New Jersey, and again on both NJTV and WNET Channel 13 in New York.
For those who missed it or who live outside the New York/New Jersey area, the interview can be seen in its entirety below.
Some comments from people who have seen the film:
“I hope this film can be used by America to figure out what we’re not doing right, so that this does not have to happen. And it’s happening right now, and shame on us that it is.”
”It’s an easy, logical unfolding of personalities, events, and consequences. When you’re creating art, the hardest thing to do is make it look like it all came together effortlessly, and this film pulls that off beautifully.”
”I never knew about any of this. My mission is to find this film and show it to my children. You changed my life today.”
”The overall depth, quantity and quality of the interviews is most impressive. Andre Braugher brings a strong, convincing voice and the music is very effective and moving at times. And while the film brings real hope at the conclusion, it’s a realistic, honest appraisal of where Newark stands today and where it must still gain.”
”The ability to preserve the integrity of multiple, diverse perspectives without bias or offense to any is brilliant! It was as though we were looking into the hearts and minds of people from all walks in Ferguson and Baltimore, where the exact same climate exists today. If you don’t believe the concept of “if we don’t know our history we are destined to repeat it” you NEED to see this film.”
”I knew about the Newark riots, but not the details - the incredible devastation. Seeing this film, I realized, people were completely taken away from their lives. You could feel the pain, the struggle. And then you could feel a certain kind of a turnaround: people not giving up in the end. That’s a key element: people who refused to die.””
