Section B·Page 6
The University Daily Kansan
Friday, April 27, 2001
Helen, Sweetheart of the Internet
PBS film revisits faces of L.A.riots
By Lynn Elber
The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — Anna Deaverie Smith speaks and a powerful chorus rings out. She's the furious African-American man, the clueless Caucasian woman, the unrepentant police chief, the anguished Korean widow.
These and other voices resound in Twilight: Los Angeles, a bold film adaptation of Smith's stage play that views the city's deadly 1992 riots through the kaleidoscope of individual experience. As in her one-woman play, Smith slips in and out of the words and attitude of men and women, famous and unknown, who were touched by the riots and recalled those dark memories for the writer-actress.
The film (airing on PBS Sunday, the ninth anniversary of the riots) adds context, including news footage and recent interviews with city residents still looking for change.
The result is an intimate expression of the anger and fear that engulfed Los Angeles after a jury acquitted four White police officers in the 1991 videotaped beating of African-American motorist Rodney King.
People born after the riot, people who are unfamiliar with the events are among those Smith had in mind when she sought to create a film that combined information with artistry.
included in Twilight: Los Angeles, along with film showing the inner city in flames, helpless police and the harsh violence casually exchanged between strangers of different races.
That infamous King beating is
It is Smith's uncanny performance that brings the sledgehammer of truth crashing down, splintering pat ideas about how and why people reacted as they did.
Her face, lovely in repose, twists into the seething anger of a riiter and into a woman's contortions of grief as she recalls her shopkeeper husband's death.
"He worked so hard. He worked very hard," Smith says, adopting the Korean-American widow's cadence as she recites her words. "And he also donate a lot of money to the Compton area ... Then, why he has to get shot, you know? I don't know why."
The film is part of Smith's long fascination with recording and conveying people's words and lives, which she chronicled in her 2000 memoir Talk to Me: Listening Between the Lines (Random House).
"We are now moving into this extraordinary and exciting culture, all these different colors of people, and we didn't ever figure out the language for dealing with the original thing," she said.
A professor as well as a playwright and actress (she had recurring roles this season on The West Wing and The Practice), Smith merges the work of educator and entertainer.
Crossword
ACRUSH
1 Dispatulated
2 Phileas revolutions
3 Pugpeeteer Lewis
4 Farming implement
5 Stir up
6 Fragrant conifer
7 Ready and willing partner?
8 Black-and-white image
9 Porters
22 Domestic worker
23 Stockholm man
24 Dundee populace
26 Command to Waranda
28 Veranda
31 Computer classification
33 Preceding death
38 Bank deal
39 Exploit
40 Old World lizard
41 Ms. Anderson
42 Fairly tale faint
43 Pleasure-loving
45 French hat
47 Vertical
48 All About " "
49 Peculiarly
50 Cooler hotpower
56 Very acid
57 Civil disorder
58 Negligee
63 Depend
64 So long in Cancun
65 Brogue, e.g.
66 Latin & others
67 Toss back and forth
68 Heavy imbibers
$ \textcircled{c} $2001 Tribune Media Services, Inc All rights reserved.
68 Heavy imbibers
69 Stadium top
4/27/01
DOWN
1 Squabbles
2 Arm joint
3 "48 Hrs." star
4 One of two closi
rivals
5 Weaponry
6 Talk baby talk
7 Can metal
8 Sports replay,
often
9 Divide into
factions
10 Group of grus
11 "Much ___ About
Nothing"
12 Flock leader
13 Rage
14 Feline
21 Quantity of
paper
22 Casual military
address
23 Fortress
24 Go on move on!
27 Teheran resident
28 Quinine water
30 Ark builder
32 Unlucky
33 Sun-dried brick
34 Israel desert
35 ___ Hause, IN
36 University in
Atlanta
37 Lion's locks
38 Computer image
39 Cute foot
50 Excavated
51 Trivial stuff
53 Take care of
54 Imam's religion
55 Fashion
56 Like horse's hooves
57 Manipulates
58 Apprehend
59 Actress Lupino
60 Colton
61 Which person?
62 Read or _
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