Nothing to See Here: The Film That Stopped the Killing in Watts

Welcome to Phil and Ted's Sexy Boomer Show.I'm Ted Bonnitt.Phil Proctor is lost at sea.He's on the high seas, or he's high on the seas.He's on a blues cruise and he'll be here next week.Today we're gonna talk about Watts, a neighborhood here in southeast Los angeles.It's a 2.1 square mile area.It's a small neighborhood.It has more than 65 gangs.It's a neighborhood that only made the news when something went wrong in a movie we're going to talk about today called Nothing to See Here, Watts.There's a cop in the film that says it plainly.It's a black neighborhood and nobody gives a F. Both black and Hispanic gangs in Watts have a history of going to war with each other for decades.So here's what happened.A white businessman, an outsider, went on a late night police ride along in Watts.And in one night, he witnessed three shootings and a death.And what was shocking to him was it never made the news.That was the thing that really hit him.So he asked the simple question, what if the people living the story told it themselves?And the answer is a film called Nothing to See Here Watts.Victims of violent crime, community activists, current and former gang members, police officers, students.There's no script, there's no director, just their iPhones and.And their stories, raw and unfiltered.Over 300 community members gave their time and talent.And then something even bigger happened.The film became a tool for peace.It was screened for rival gang leaders in the hood after a peace pledge was signed.Watts, four largest public housing developments reported zero gang related homicides in the following 18 months.And homicides, generally speaking, is down 90%.And it had a lot to do with this project and people coming together with a common denominator, which was the future of their children.It brought peace.It's a remarkable story.And I'm joined by four people who live this story.We're going to be talking about murder, shootings, loss, pretty rough stuff.But we're also going to be talking about forgiveness.So let's meet them now.Michael Soenen is a Los Angeles businessman and entrepreneur.He was that white guy, the outsider.He's the genesis of this project.Tim Pearce is a retired LAPD gang officer who worked in Watts.His wife, Christina Rappati, I hope I have that right.Was shot in the line of duty and left paralyzed.Another incredible story we're going to talk about.And Qiuana Williams, her son was shot while just trying to sell a PlayStation legitimately, to just raise some money for his family.And he was severely injured and climbed back from that.Qiuana advocates for forgiveness, accountability and change.Welcome.

Thank you.

Let's talk about Watts.It's a small neighborhood.It's known, of course, for the Watts Towers, those beautiful sculptures.It's also known for the Watts Riots, Watts Rebellion, the Watts Uprising, which took place in the neighborhood and its surrounding areas in LA for five days in August of 1965.The riots started with a police stop and then were motivated by anger at then racist, abusive practices of the LA Police Department, as well as grievances over employment discrimination, residential segregation and poverty in LA.Nearly 14,000 members of the California Army National Guard were called in to help suppress the disturbance, which resulted in 34 deaths and over $40 million in property damage.It was the biggest protest over police brutality until the riots of 92 following the Rodney King beating.Kiana, how long have you been in Watts?

So I actually don't live in Watts.Our story, the story of both my son Sean and myself, I think, is the fact that we did not live in Watts is what lent itself the tremendous amount of support that we received from lapd, lapd, csp, which is the community service partnership.And folks just really wanting to rally around us because they couldn't understand how something like that could happen.

What happened?

So what happened was Sean has embodied this entrepreneurial spirit since birth.As you saw in the film, he would walk around with a briefcase at 6.He wanted a Levenger pin and a laptop.He would wear a sports coat everywhere.That's always been Sean.And he was trying to figure out how to make some extra money, which he always did.And at this point, he was buying and selling PlayStations during the pandemic.So the day before, he sold a PlayStation to a kid who had birthday money.Right.And he was expecting the same thing the next day, which was the complete opposite of what happened.So he'd been in communication with these teenagers over the course of about a week, and they were discussing negotiating the price, delivery.And so they told him that they would give him or pay him an extra $25 for a delivery fee if he were to drive to them rather than for them to meet at a sheriff's department or a police department, which was the typical protocol.So of course he thought, okay, yeah, I've got a car, I can drive to them.

And Watts, where they wanted to meet,.

He didn't know.I think it's just a level of naivete.He went to a school That I think the population of the entire school was maybe 300 between from 9th through 12th grade.It was a specialized school.It was called a middle college high school in Wilmington, which is a community in la.So it was on the campus of Harvard Community College.And so students at his high school would also take college classes concurrently and graduate with degrees.So eventually he graduated with four associate of arts degrees.So again, the idea that some kids could want to rob him was completely foreign.So on that day, he Googled the address that they gave him.And if I can recall, I can't.He said he either used Apple Maps or Google Maps, which was the opposite of the mapping system that he would ordinarily use.So it just said LA.So he's like, okay, he's 17,.

Okay, so he doesn't know.

He has no idea.And it's funny that we earlier, we were just bantering, talking about the Wire.I asked him afterwards, I said, have you ever watched the Wire?Did you at any point, did you think maybe I should turn around and not do this?And he's like, no.As a matter of fact, when I pulled into the community, I thought, okay, maybe I should drive these kids home because I don't want them walking around with this expensive game.This can't be good for them.He had no idea that he was gonna be on the receiving end of what could have possibly been his death date.So within three minutes of pulling up, he opened the trunk, the kids walk up, and again, it's during the pandemic.So he's got his face, he's masked up.

Broad daylight,.

Broad daylight between, I think it was 2:30 in the afternoon on a Tuesday.And the kids walked up, they were 13 and 17 at the time.And so he's thinking, okay, not quite who I expected, but what's the worst that could happen?So they walked to his trunk and they ask him to open the box.And of course, again, as a businessman, he's like, I'm thinking about the resale value.If I open this box, I can't.And they don't buy it.I can't resell it for the same value as a closed box.And he says they start aggressively telling him to open the box and.But again, he's processing.And within minutes, one of the kids drew down on, drew out the gun from behind him and shot him.Fired off three shots.There were, there was no fighting, there was no back and forth argument other than him saying he didn't want to open the box.And they fired three shots.One entered his body and it ruptured the femoral artery.And then they stood over the top of him and one of the kids instructed the other kid to finish him off.Unimaginable.And so as he's pleading for his life, he's telling them they can take it.Take the game, take the car, take whatever you want.Just don't take my life.Leave me.They didn't know how to drive the car.He threw the keys to them and pulled himself onto the sidewalk.He was afraid that they were going to back up and run him over because they didn't know how to operate the vehicle.Unimaginable.

But he came back and he's doing just great.He's in the tech sector up in the Bay Area.God bless Tim Pierce.You were LAPD in that district as a gang officer.This is like an everyday occurrence.

Yeah, actually it is.Or was.Then when I got to Watson 2001, we were running about 80 to 90 murders a year in that area, that small area.And so we would.If you worked three, four days a week, you were on a murder at least every other day.Sometimes.Some days you would be on three.It was super violent.In fact, it was even more violent before I got there.But it was starting to wane.Just incredible.And you get these big housing projects and they're all close together and they're all enemies, they're all warring.So you never know what's going to kick it off.But a lot of it, it's all gang related, 99% of it.And this was very common.And LAPD really got behind this family because they're just quality people.Got mixed up in a really bad situation.And we heard about.When we started filming the movie, we heard about Sean and we thought, what a perfect story to tell.He just entered the neighborhood and this happened to him.In fact, it was.When she was telling the story, it was actually on the sidewalk of a middle school.There were kids in school.It doesn't matter what time, day.Yeah, I've been to triple murders at 10 o' clock on Sunday morning.

I would imagine this was all over the news media, wasn't it?

No, they don't.They don't really make the news unless it's something massive or officers involved in it or something like that.

There's so many murders there almost on a daily basis.And we don't read about it in the paper.

No, I think it's just oversaturated.The murders have come way down since back then.I think they're in the 30s now, every year.

We're going to talk about that, because this project really helped make that happen, which is amazing.And again, Watts is this small area, and there are housing projects.These projects are like territories, and they're at war with each other.And kids that grew up in these projects, they're at risk.Their parents are either absent or busy.So the only way these kids can be safe is to join the gangs.And some of the parents take their kids to the gangs to get protection.That sounds insane.

Yeah, that's very true.If you're not with the gang in some way, shape or form, you stay in your house.That's life down there.If you're a normal family and you have no connections, you don't get to pass, you don't get to hang out.You stay in the house.Here's a good example.One of the officers that works southeast division grew up in one of the gang neighborhoods in Watts.And there were 11 kids in his apartment building.And he said that only two of them made it out.The rest were either dead or in prison.And he goes, the only difference was that our mothers would not let us out of the house.Those guys were allowed to hang out on the streets.That place will eat you alive.If you're a kid hanging out on the streets, you're going to get pulled into one of those gangs or you're going to get hurt by one of those gangs.

That sets the backdrop for our other guest, Mike Suhen, who lives about 10 miles away in an entirely different world.And you decided to take a ride along with the LAPD one night into Watts.What happened?

Yeah, it was a crazy story.So it starts, we were doing some non profit working Watts where we would paint bedrooms for kids.They get a fresh coat of paint, get a bed and a desk.A great project called the Healthy room project.And they had done maybe 100 bedrooms in the community.But I always thought it was strange because where I'm from, we paint playgrounds.And to Tim's point, it's so violent.The kids don't get to go outside.We would give them a bedroom.Right.And as a thank you, because the police would often work security as you would bring stuff into the home.They said, would you like to come out with us for a ride along?I saw three things that happened.Three people get shot, one guy died.And none of that was on the news.

This is all one night.

One night, three shootings, one guy gone.Then I end up at a kind of a community center, like a school.And they're teaching kids not to call 911.

Why is that?

Because the gangs had figured out that the 911 calls were recorded and that they could create a FOIA request because whoever had called it in would be a witness, and they would then target whoever called 911.

So you couldn't even call 911.

And you're teaching your kids not to do it, which is very different from where I live.And then third, I'm talking to a gang member and I'm like, what made you join the gang?And he says, my mom put me in the gang when I was 8, so I had protection while she went to work.And I'm like, wow, 10 miles from where I live.And partly what got into my head was I'm well read, I'm well resourced, I have access to lots of information.And I'm thinking, are these the only three things I don't know?Or are there 30?And that's what kind of became the impetus to kick off the project.

LA is unique in that way.You have, I think, the greatest wealth inequality geographically between Beverly Hills and South Central.They're so close, and yet they are so far.So you see this horror show and you had a great idea.

Yeah.And Tim and I, it was early on, but I came up with this idea where I was like, look, I want to know what else I don't know.Right.So what are the other 30 things so we don't start this project out trying to make a film.I'd never made a film.No desire to make a film.I'm like a venture capitalist person.But one of the things we're trained in is how do you get the most amount of information for the least amount of money possible?And I knew I couldn't just walk around Watts on my own.So I went out and bought 20 iPhones and started asking people, if I give you this phone, will you film your life for me?I ended up asking about 200 people.

In the neighborhood.

In the neighborhood.

How did you reach out to them?

A lot of it came through Tim.Tim had relationships with former gang members.They knew who the priests were.And we would meet with gang members, we'd meet with priests.We meet with known prostitutes, kids, people like Sean's mother, who we knew had been shot in the community.We asked 200 people.

Wow.

If they would film their life.And over the course of the next year, we found 20 who said yes.

And did you think that when you handed out these iPhones, that you were ever going to see them again?

The prevailing thought, Tim will tell you, was like, absolutely not.Like, absolutely not.But I'll tell you what was one of the early learnings was not only did all 20 come back, it came back with 200 hours of footage.And when you talk to people, what they really respected was, and I think Tim's got some good commentary on this, which is the story was always shaped through the media.Nobody had ever given them the chance to tell the story on their own.And, Tim, I know you've got some views on this, but why don't you share a little bit of your perspective, just having seen it through your lens?

Yeah, sure.There was a lot of pushback in the first two years trying to get this out there.

When did it start?

That's been what, now, four years?

20.21.Okay.

And so it was really hard to walk up to people and say, hey, would you film your life?And a lot of people tried, but there was plenty of pushback.And what we learned is that neighborhood is so sick of that narrative of there's nothing here but violent gang members, violent cops, right?And there's this community pride in that neighborhood that is really strong.They're like, yeah, we know this is a dangerous place, but we're strong, enduring people, and we're proud of that, and we're proud of our community.And once they figured out that, hey, we're not doing that story, we're doing something else.This is your story for you, about you, by you.Right?Then they're like, oh, this is different.And then people started to glob on.Out of the 200 people that we approached, several tried.But it is very difficult to take a phone and just talk into it, right?So some people couldn't do it.Some people just said, hey, gave the phone back or whatever.But the 20 that stuck it out, we ended up with some amazing footage.

It was pretty surprising to me how comfortable some of those people were.And then just completely went raw.For example, Nessie McKinney, who is a community resident.What a story.She had attacked by gangsters with her two kids in the car.Again, on camera, they're just beating her, and they're taking her stuff, and she's just saying, take whatever you want.Leave me alone.They were Mexican gang bangers, and Nessie is black, and they took her belongings, as she said, and her trust.And after that happened, the trauma of it was when it really kicked in.She was afraid to go home.She thought they were gonna come back.She was on a waiting list to get some housing, couldn't get it.Went to a hotel, a motel that looked like it didn't even have locks on it.And there were some shady characters hanging out.And she was sc.She parked her car somewhere and just set the phone up and started just talking into the camera.And it's just astounding how small this area is.And you did an overlay of the violent crimes.It's not just shootings.It's rape and aggravated assault, and it literally blanketed the map.It's just shocking.This is also the fascinating part for me in the movie that you had gang leaders get involved.Opposing gang leaders.Crips and Bloods and Tyrone Riley Sr. And Cornelius Wills.One a Crip, one a Blood.They came together on this.They were actually invited to be on here today, but they're now jet setters.

And they're dying to come back on because they wanted to be here.But you know what's crazy?One of the things just maybe for the listeners, but we get the 200 hours back.And remember, we weren't even setting out to make a film, right?We had just setting out to learn, right?And so we actually have to get them all in one room, which took about six months, because these gang members hated each other, and the police officers hated the gang members.And we had victims, and they're like.Like Sean's mom's like, we're not gonna come sit in the room with these guys.They, like, shot my kid.

Yeah.

All right.That's real stuff.And so we get him in the room and we said, look, we will build you the infrastructure to make this a movie, okay?But there's going to be one rule, which is you all need to agree on the final cut.And frankly, I thought I was off the hook because I didn't want to be the storyteller as the outsider.And I thought, there is no way this group's going to agree.So we have Christina Rapati, an officer shot by the gangs.Iris Romero, an officer whose brother and sister killed by the gangs.You got the victims.You have everybody in the same room, okay?And they ended up working together for the next year to carve the 200 hours down to a 60 minute cut.And one of the massive moments, and so much happens in the editing room.That scene of Niecy being beat.We were in the room when it happened.Cornelius realizes it's his gang that did the beating.So she's coming in, giving her update, and she's like, here's what happened to me.And now he's got to Sit in this room and we'll talk a little bit about the truth later.But.And justify why his homies beat the crap out of a woman and her two kids on camera and a civilian.And he couldn't stomach it.He had to watch it and he had to watch her have to now live with it.And so what I thought made the film unique was less about the filming, but when they had to edit and see what it's like to be the gang member who's put in the gang at eight, what it's like to be Sean who's shot on the eve of going away to college, what it's like to be a mother and have your kids beaten in front of the gangs.Everybody had to see each other's point of view.And I think ultimately everybody.Lawanda would call it empathy without forgiveness.

Lawanda is another resident who lost her son Reggie.And she does something extraordinary.She collects the shoes of victims and puts them on display.She has over 200 pairs of shoes belonging to murder victims, including baby shoes.She put herself on camera, she's in her car where she felt safe and secure and private.And she just broke down talking about losing her son.A very small percentage of the residents are causing all this mayhem.The vast majority of them are honest, hard working folks.Marilyn Gonzales, he's a young woman, a boxing champion, a straight A student, parents that are totally on the job.She's a 20, 28 Olympic hopeful.Celeste Garnica, a high school senior who wants to be a nurse.And she's just trying to study.And the helicopters overhead keep her awake at night, distract her from studying.When she has to go to school or go somewhere, she's worried about getting shot and killed on the way to the bus.This is her day to day existence.You had everybody shoot 200 hours of footage.And through that came a film, a 90 minute cut.It's really good.She wanted to show it to the neighborhood and in order to do that you had to gather the gangs together.Now these people have been killing each other for decades and the idea was to get them all in one room to talk about this movie.And I know Tim, as a cop, you were nervous, everybody was nervous.You weren't frisking them.They were probably all packing.And one slight could have caused them just a massacre.

Yeah.Celeste says there was only one exit out of that room too.

What happened.

That was the second meeting is when they brought in some of the upper level gang members.And what's interesting about that is them looking at me, knowing I was a cop.You can cut the.They look at you with such disdain.You could cut it with a knife, right?And they watch the film.And that film does what it does.It reaches deep inside you and pulls out empathy because you are.You're seeing it from their perspective.And at the end of that day, these gangsters, as they were leaving, I was in that hallway, the exit, and, you know, shaking their hands.And usually they give you the dead fish hand.And they were looking me straight in the eyes and giving me a real handshake.And you could tell there was admiration, respect there, which was shocking to me.Right?You don't get that.And one of them looked at me and he goes, man, I ain't never looked at you guys like people before.I never thought of you anything other than the popo, like, we were robots, whatever.And I thought, wow, this is interesting, right?How that film changed their opinion right then and there.

Just respect and understanding.

And it does that.All sides of the table.Doesn't matter who you are.And they were really incredible.

I'm sure it was tense as hell in there, but people were respectful.The gang leaders decided we should sell this to the rank and file, the young gang bangers, the ones that are still killing each other left and right.Because the motivating factor here was that they all were tired of their children being killed, maimed, or living the way they were living.They wanted it to end.What was that like?

I'll tell you the thing that was crazy about that, right?So you get in this room in.I'm gonna start with the first meme of the second.So, you know, we had the filmmakers there, and then we have guys who spent 200 years in prison.

Yeah.

And the takeaway was, everybody's losing.Okay?They're like, we've worked three years on this film.They're like, we filmed it ourselves, we edited it ourselves, and when we're looking at it, we hate how our movie ends.

What was the ending that they hated.

Was just a bunch of sad stories.

Yeah,.

It was just a bunch of sad stories.And they said, let us try to go change our community.And the path that was proposed was that the gang leaders would then host screenings in each of their gang houses for the young kids that were causing all the trouble today.Right.The senior people used to cause the trouble.The younger kids, the 14 year olds, 15 year olds, the ones that were about the age of the people who shot Sean were the ones causing the problem.And we did at least 15 separate screenings.One of them, we actually Held in a warehouse.When they had enough of the individual screenings done.The kind of.The final one, we had leadership from Watts, four largest gangs.And that's in the film.Right.Because a lot of these, they would not let you film.But we had leadership from Watts, four largest gangs convene in a warehouse.So our premiere, if you will, wasn't at Sundance.Right.Our premiere was in a warehouse, a gang neutral area in Watts.And all the gang leaders convened.They brought the youth.They had everybody there.And that's where we began to cut the deal on what would it look like if we recommitted to peace?What would the terms of that be?

How was the initial reception among the young ones?

The young ones didn't really like the idea at first.Right.The senior ones had lived through it.You talked about the crime map earlier.The first time we showed that map to Cornelius.Okay.A hardcore bounty hunter, blood.He was like, how the heck have I lived in this for 30 years?And the last thing that he ever wanted was his kids to have to live through the same thing.

Yeah.

And no matter where you were in that tree, if you were a teacher, if you were clergy, if you were a gang leader, if you were a police officer, everybody could agree kids did not deserve to live in this.

Cornelius talks about how there's one middle school in all of Watts, Edwin Markham Middle School.Cornelius said, this is the real danger point, the choke point, because all the kids have to come to the same school from all these different projects.And you would think that would be not a big deal because most people who send their kids to middle school don't think in these terms.But these folks had to realize that there was no safe route from any project to get to this one school.You took your life in your hands just going to school every day.How do you even concentrate on your grades?These middle school kids, that was the nucleus of this problem,.

And they're dragging all their neighborhood drama comes to the school with them.Right.That gets hashed out in the school.

Do they have metal detectors walking into the school?Actually,.

I don't know.

Markham did when I was there, at least.I mean, I don't know that they act all the time, but yeah, certainly they look the.I think the major thing for the kids ended up being like when they started to see the gang leaders working with the police.Right.This was like your parents kind of co oping with the school.Like suddenly you have to start to fold in.Yeah.So rather than the gang leaders blaming the police or the police blaming the gang leaders, when they were willing to work together to make it safer for the kids, it was a little bit like, we want your buy in, but we're going this way.They had to actually, on both sides, parent.And I think that trust that got built over the three years of working together was like, hey, kids, we want you on board, but we're kind of doing this with or without you.And frankly, the kids, they don't want to have to worry about getting shot, walking to school.No kids against safely getting to and from school.

Were the people that were participating feel as though they were targets of people who were for some reason, opposed to this.

Tim knows a lot of it, too.The distrust for police and the idea of co op working with police.From I equated it a little bit to the high school rivalry.When I went to my high school, I was told to hate another high school, and I'd never met anybody from there.

Yeah,.

Most of the kids, it was just programmed.It wasn't lived experience.And so that's when I think the opportunity for like, hey, you're gonna safely get to and from school and you're gonna this.And when they saw the groups working together, that started to change the narrative.When the Bloods and the Crips and LAPD are working together to make things safer for kids, those three groups have a lot of say.

LAPD did have a bad reputation under Gates back in the day, and the Watts riots were a result of systemic racism.In your perception as an lapd, now retired, how do you think the public perception in Watts is now of the police?Has it evolved?Is it any better?

Yeah, I think it's actually pretty good.

Yeah.

Yeah.I came on right after Rodney King, and my experience on LAPD was of that, of the way it is after that.You know, a lot of people told me, oh, don't go to lapd.That place is.Policing's destroyed there ever since the Rodney King deal.And I thought, you know what?That's their perspective because they lived it before.My perspective is going to be now.Right.And I'm so glad I did that because I had a fantastic career.And the community there, there's always going to be confrontation with the police with some element, but that community knows they need the police more than anywhere.There's plenty of good relationships, even the gang officers.That's part of your job, is to build relationships with these guys.It's not locking horns every single minute, every single night.There's some that will always be that way, but most of it it's communication.You're talking to them.

And you had every reason to be bitter.

Sure.

Because your personal story is that your wife was also an LAPD officer.Because you were married, you couldn't be together, but you were working the same shift in different divisions.Yeah.

Yeah.

What happened?

She was working Southwest Division, King Boulevard, just west of usc, the Crenshaw district.And her and I worked gangs up there together.We were partners up there before we ever dated or anything.We just became best friends.And she was a super dynamic LAPD gang officer, like Tip Top, and just really uniquely designed for that job.She's great.She's working.We're newly married.Daughter's 16 months old.I'm working in watch.She's still working up in Southwest Division.She sees a guy when he sees her, black and white.He looks like he's dumping something behind a car, trying to evade her.She pulls over, hops out, talks to him.Hey, come here.He runs.She's working with her partner, Joe.She chases him, no gun in his hands, while he's running.He cuts up across the lawn, tries to get into a door.These guys will run in anybody's house.And it gets super complicated when they do that.She actually grabs him at the door, preventing him from getting inside.And he spins and stuffs a pistol up under her armpit above her, shoots her in the crease of the armpit above her bulletproof vest.And that bullet goes through, hits her in the spinal cord, paralyzes her.And he stands over and he shoots her three more times on the deck, trying to execute her.And luckily, her partner Joe, who had stopped on the grass, is firing at him simultaneously and shoots him and kills him before he can kill Christina.I'm working in Watts.I hear the help call my partner, and I fly up there.I get there right as the paramedics are putting their boxes down.She's sheet white, no blue in her eyes, completely locked and fixed, totally dilated.And there's thick, syrupy arterial blood coming out from under her back, down four steps in a big puddle on the walkway.She lost a ton of blood.I watched them put five bags in her of blood in her in the trauma room.I was in there with her.So obviously, she.That happened in 2006.And I continued to work at LAP for another seven years as a gang officer after that.And then I retired in 2014.Was completely retired in 2014.And then this project came around, and I liked it because I live in Redondo Beach, Torrance area, same thing.Eight miles from Watts.I've always lived there, and my community has no clue what's going on over there.And I would always try to educate them.And then when I met Mike and he had this idea, I thought, this is really cool.I want to hear it directly from the horse's mouth.Right.I want everybody to hear it from their mouth.And so that's how I got involved in helping.I can introduce some people to him.I can run security for him.I really was afraid he was going to get smoked.Like, you can't.You just can't walk around handing out phones.You have to have a chaperone.Right.With a gun.Right.But, yeah, it turned out to be a wonderful project and I'm super proud of, you know, who are the biggest leaders in this thing?Tyrone and Cornelius.Yeah, I don't have to go to that neighborhood anymore.They do.So they've got to deal with the jealousy, they got to deal with the hood politics.They got to deal with, you're working with the police, all that kind of stuff.And they still.And they're doing an amazing job.

And to your credit, you brushed over what happened to you personally with your wife.My God, she went through it.She had result of her injury.She had brain trauma injury which affected her deeply.And it's a lifelong injury for her.

Yeah, she had massive blood loss and that ended up in a traumatic brain injury in the frontal cortex and the amygdala, which, you know, all your emotional responses, regulation and your emotion, your brakes, it's all broken,.

Poor dear.

Yeah,.

No one seems to be untouched down there.Now that you have this movie, the idea is to show it to the neighborhood.And you propose screening this downtown LA at the Peacock Theater, where there's 4,000 seats, and invite everyone to come see it.And that absolutely freaks out the lapd.The chief, Mike came up to you and said, what are you doing?You can't do this.Why?

Okay, so imagine.So there was 20 filmmakers, but by the time we were done with the film, 300 people in the community of Watts had worked on the film.And so for the opening night, we told Everybody, bring your 20 closest friends.Well, suddenly we have 4,000 people coming to a screening now.It was so controversial there.No.So we had 250 plainclothes officers and we had representation from 10 different gangs.

These 250 planes, were they on duty or were they there because they wanted to be there?

They were there because they knew somebody related to the film and this.And, you know, we had on duty as well.But we had a lot of people just there to check.So.

You had 250 cops and about 4000.

Gang.Gang affiliated.

Gang affiliated people.The police had decided not to sit amongst them in the crowd.They.

Wanted the outside.

And the police chief came up to you and said, this is not.

Yeah, they're like, what are we doing?Like, if you put 10 gangs in a room.

Yeah.

And it goes badly, that's on us.They're not going to remember the iPhone guy, right.They're going to come back and go, this is on you, Chief.And he actually came and showed up at the event.He actually showed up.Him, Chief Amada.All of the command staff actually were compelled.Many of them had new people who were in the film one way or another came.But that night, what made it really crazy was you had them all in one room and they were live streaming it via Facebook to family members in prison.

Yeah,.

They had cousins who were in prison.And so they were.You had the watching it.You had the dynamics of the room.And they were live streaming it to prisons and family members who were all over the place.Watts has got 30,000 people.You walk out and 5,000 members of the community just watch the same film.They had pride in the fact that the homicide rate had come way down.They understood the same way the empathy for each other's.And that really, I thought went from 20 people had been 300 working on the film to 4000 bought in to a new set of cultural standards.And almost immediately, you can chart the reductions in violent crime.

Since this has come out.There has been no gang related murders in Watts and generally homicides are down 90%.And we're going into what, 18 months now.

After the film.Yeah,.

Yeah,.

After the film.People have taken notice.Other cities have taken interest because other cities have the same problem.Tell us about how this is spreading.

So we did 90 events this year, 18 countries, some of which.One of which is Bernice King.Dr. Bernice King became aware of the film and at the Aspen Ideas Festival and said, will you show it at the King center for the King holiday last year from there we were up at Harvard.We showed it in Boston.We've shown it in Chicago at gun violence conferences.We all leave for Toronto on Monday for a 600 person conference in Toronto.Gang and police thing.And along the way we get a call from the State Department and they had a screen in Islamabad, Pakistan, where following the screening, I don't know if you guys even know this yet, we had 22 cities reach out and Ask if they could replicate the project.And the State Department has greenlit two of those cities.

Are they funding an organizational approach to doing what you did in Watts in all these different cities?Because they all have the same issues.

Exactly.So Harvard has helped us replicate the playbook and these other cities are now starting to.To do versions of it.And so after that, we go to Warsaw.We're doing one there with Russian and Ukrainian peace workers.And then Dr. Bernice King just let us know they'll be announcing on the seventh a two year hundred city tour of the film.She calls it the modern day peace.March 2029 is the 100th anniversary of her father's birth.And she wants to do 100 screenings in 100 cities leading up to the hundred.

Okay.So folks who are listening probably want to see this film.And the website is nothing to see here.Movie.com.

And they can see it there for free.It's up on the site.

So you can watch it.

Yeah.So we are actually up.We've qualified for three categories for the Academy Awards.We have not been nominated yet for, for best doc and for score and for director.And so we're allowing people to go to the site because the voters want to see it.Nothing to see here movie.com fort watch.And you can see.See the.Both the trailer and the film there for free through the Academy voting season.

And it's also going to be showing at the Culver City Film festival sometime between December 5th and 10th and also in December in the Santa Clarita International Film Festival.All those times to be announced.But you can see it now@nothingtochermovie.com it also explains the participants who's involved.Man, did you have any idea this was going to catch fire?

No.I literally, when I was introduced to Mike, told about this project, introduced to Mike, I seriously just wanted to protect them.Right.I thought it was a cool idea, but I thought there's not a chance this is going to go anywhere.Maybe three months max.All those phones are gone.Right.And.But we didn't lose any phones and circulated through 200 people.It was pretty incredible.

Wow.

And I would have to say there was some serious trepidation on my and Shawn's part.But Tim came over to the house to explain what they were thinking about doing.And we're like, do we really wanna put our faces out there for the world to see?Are they gonna come back for us?But then we also thought LAPD got behind us so strongly and there is such a tremendous power in Storytelling, especially when you have a number of people who are coming together for the same purpose.And that's what we've seen here.It culminated in not only talking, but talking through issues to affect change.So I'm so happy that we got the chance.Although initially we were worried.

Shawn's shooters ever apprehended.

Same day, actually.They were just immediate response.Oh,.

Good.

Yeah.

Actually shot a.One of those guys that cooks corn on the little cart on the corner.They had actually the day before had shot him in a robbery.They were on a robbery spree.

My goodness.What's the vibe you're getting in the neighborhood now?

I was super proud of all the groups.Just if you go on the website, you'll see all the different nonprofits that the different filmmakers run.But the one that the Closing the Gap Academy we had about four weeks ago, Cornelius and Tyrone.So a Blood and a Crip with sponsorship from LAPD's CSP Group.Right.The three groups hosted a kids camp at Jordan High School.The LA Rams, which part of this project Blue came out and supported.They put on a kids camp in the morning and in the afternoon.We had a whole bunch of different classes for the kids.They thought they were gonna get 150 kids showing up, but 300 show up.And so you end up with.What do the kids see?Different gangs working with the police.And because we're working peacefully together, we're hanging out with the Rams and we're getting top tier education.And to see how the groups are now working together, it's not perfect, but they're working together to make it better for their kids.It's almost like it has nothing to do with the film.They would say it catalyzed them to want to work together for the betterment of the kids.I'd say they did the work to make the community better.I think the film process got them to see each other in a way that they wanted to work together.

The kids who were in the movie who are dedicated to an education, becoming a nurse, are all you can get the education there.You had to defuse this toxic environment.

I think the movie opens a door for them and gives them permission to cross the aisle in a way.Right.And I think there's a lot of people that are completely exhausted with living like that.And so they're looking for.They're looking for a way.And the movie just this was.It opened the door for him to do something different.

Congratulations.That's really remarkable what you've done and are doing.Tim Pearce EX LAPD gang officer and hero, Qiuana Williams, mom of Sean and you raised a great kid.He fought back at 10 surgeries from that shooting.12.12 Surgeries.My goodness.And he's back.And Michael Soenen, thank you very much for what you've done and making this happen.That was really an inspired idea.If you want to see this, go to the website nothingtosehere movie.com.And we're going to get Tyrone and Cornelius here to talk it from a gang perspective.That will be fascinating.So as soon as they're available, please let us know.And I'm Ted Bonnitt.Phil Proctor, my partner in crime, will be back next week.There is hope.If this show didn't demonstrate it, I don't know what does.Thank you so much for coming down.Thanks.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Take care.