Riot: Real Life Stories Behind The Devastating L.A. Riots Of '92

In April 1992, following the notorious Rodney King verdict, the streets Los Angeles became a battlefield. Now they become the shattering backdrop for a provocative film from Hallmark entertainment as four personal stories intertwine to explore the real-life drama that changed the lives of everyone who lived it

In Gold Mountain, Jeff Lee and his parents run Good Neighbor Liquor in South Central L.A. Theirs is an Asian family of "old world" values at odds with a modern world-cultures that are about to clash in ways they never imagined. In Caught In the Fever, a day at the mall for Manuel Alvarado, the eldest son of a poor Hispanic family, and his girlfriend Iris, spirals into a nightmare as they're drawn into the out-of-control frenzy of a violent afternoon. In Homecoming Day, Turner Coates (Mario Van Peebles, Mama Flora's Family) returns to the South Central hood of his youth to visit his mother (Emmy winner and Golden Globe nominee Cicely Tyson, Aftershock: Earthquake In New York)-a homecoming overshadowed by an inescapable threat. In Empty, Boomer Philips (Luke Parry, Johnson County War) and his fellow LAPD officers are in a South Central restaurant when Boomer receives the command from his dispatcher to get out of South Central-but the command comes too late. Boomer's already in too deep, and there's no escaping the chaos around him.

The Rodney King verdict has been announced. The violence advances block by block. Now, in the aftermath of an outrage, the lives of the Lee family, Carlos and his friends, Officer Philips, and Coates and his mother will cross with stunning impact. Each one of them will be pushed to their limits. Each will have their strength tested and their spirit challenged as a day like no other erupts before the eyes of a nation.