The Riot Report
DOC NYC premiere 2023 /
American Experience broadcast 2024 |
113 min
When Black neighborhoods in scores of American cities erupted in violence in 1967, President Lyndon Johnson appointed the Kerner Commission to investigate precisely what had happened and why. Johnson expected the handpicked group to bolster support for his ambitious social welfare agenda. Instead, the commission went rogue.
Featuring interviews with the commission's sole surviving member, Senator Fred Harris, as well as several staffers, The Riot Report draws upon a rich but forgotten archive to document both the commission's work and its incendiary conclusions––resurrecting a past that today reads as prologue.
Directed by
Michelle Ferrari
Written by
Michelle Ferrari
Jelani Cobb
Produced by
Connie Honeycutt
Michelle Ferrari
Co-produced by
Jelani Cobb
Edited by
Karl Dawson
Original Score by
Matthew Head