RIOTS

off riots that held the city in a terrorized grip for almost a week.

Twenty-five years later, the uprising and its aftermath still rank as one of the most tumultuous — and shameful — chapters in Los Angeles history.

“There’s no plaque, no marker, nothing to mark that spot,” said Ridley, scanning his surroundings. “History happened here.”

The filmmaker kept talking but struggled to articulate his feelings about the absence of a marker for the location.

Finally, he offered: “It’s just — surreal.”

To mark the anniversary, Ridley teamed with ABC News’ Lincoln Square Productions in directing his first documentary, “Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982-1992.”

The wide-ranging — and often-heartbreaking — film explores the flareup as well as violent incidents in the decade preceding the riots as well as the aftermath.

The two-hour TV movie, the most high-profile in a flurry of L.A. riot-related documentaries being offered this month by broadcast and cable networks. will premiere Friday night on ABC.

On past anniversaries, projects or studies of the turmoil have been scarce, with filmmakers struggling to capture in narrative form the epic scale of the events, which involved many communities and cultural groups.

“I understand, as someone who loves history, how much history is not told or taught or seen as having value if it’s not heroic or neatly dispensed,” said Ridley, noting the magnitude of the uprisings, which resulted in 50-plus deaths, $1 billion in damage and the destruction of 862 buildings.

“Let It Fall” shows the familiar camcorder video of the beating taken by plumber George Holliday and news footage of the post-verdict mayhem in South-Central Los Angeles, including the vicious assault on white truck driver Reginald Denny.

But it also offers more perspective — both personal and professional — with new interviews from those directly and indirectly involved, including family members of victims, lawyers and police officers.

Asked what affected him most about making the project, Ridley didn’t hesitate: “It’s the immediacy of it all. To sit 3 to 5 feet away from individuals, and they are still so much in that moment. Time hasn’t passed for them. ... These people don’t know each other, aren’t related to each other, but these series of events still uniformly impact them.”

Jeanmarie Condon, an executive producer of “Let It Fall,” thinks the film will resonate with viewers in light of the current political climate.

“At a time when some of the issues we deal with on the project are very much on people’s minds, it’s good to look back with wisdom and insight to what people were dealing with at that time,” Condon said. “I hope viewers get a sense that history doesn’t come about because of a grand plan. It’s human beings making very personal decisions — ones that are made in the moment — which have consequences.”

Ridley, who had just moved from New York to Los Angeles shortly before the riots erupted, has his own throat-clenching recollections of that period.

“I was living in the Fairfax area at the time,” he said. “That first night, I remember thinking, ‘This is bad, but something will contain this — the citizenry or police.’ But it was clear that there was a sense that people were no longer going to treat other people with compassion, and that the police were either unwilling or unable to restore order.”

Ridley and his associates wanted to tell the saga from several perspectives, reaching out even to the officers involved in the beating. All declined to participate.

“For me,” Ridley said, “it was important not to exonerate or indict people but to create a space where they could feel comfortable to tell their stories the way they wanted to.”

Then he added: “It was also important to show that, for at least 10 years, people tried to ... engage about what was happening between police and communities. ... The Rodney King riot did not start with Rodney King, and it didn’t end with Reginald Denny.”

He hopes “Let It Fall” might lead to greater scrutiny of volatile political and racial issues before they reach a breaking point.

“If we wait for an outsized event, that’s when it becomes problematic.”