Sam George Movies

Narrated by Academy Award-winning actor Forest Whitaker, Dogtown and Z-Boys director Stacy Peralta's unflinching documentary chronicles one of the longest-running civil wars in the history of America though a deeply humanistic lens. The Bloods and Crips are two of South Los Angeles' most notorious African-American gangs. While many outsiders simply cannot understand the decades-long cycle of despair and destruction that has come to define their daily lives, the individuals who comprise each gang are not simply mindless, gun-toting thugs, but real people with real families who have become caught up in a struggle from which the only escape is often death. Beginning with an illuminating look at the genesis of L.A.'s gang culture, Crips and Bloods: Made in America follows the bloody feud that would stretch on for a grueling four decades, revealing the turf wars, hierarchy, family structure, gun culture, and stringent rules through interviews with gangsters past and present, as well as experts, activists, and academics. Throughout the film, the numerous issues blanketing the streets of South L.A. with a deep sense of dread are reflected upon by gang intervention experts, former gang members, writers, and academics in an effort to examine the erosion of identity that helps to perpetrate black self-hatred, prison culture, and the disappearance of the black father in the home. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Two narratives intersect in the surfing documentary The Lost Wave: An African Surf Story. At its center lies the on-camera journey of famed surf explorer and pioneer Sam George, who joins two traveling companions (Joe Curren and Holly Beck) on a dazzling exploratory expedition to the tiny island of São Tomé (one half of the country São Tomé and Principé, in the Gulf of Guinea, just off of the African coast) to investigate the unusual permeation, into that indigenous culture, of surfing with flat, finless boards. Upon arrival, George hopes to bank off of the local enthusiasm for the sport and use it to rekindle his own passion for cresting waves. On a deeper level still, however, the tale lingers of the island's troubled history - a history that involves colonialism and longstanding slavery. E! reporter and surf fanatic Sal Masakela narrates. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi