Showtime Offers Two Documentaries Examining Racial Injustice In America for Free

In an effort to provide resources and raise awareness around the ongoing struggle against systemic racism in America, Showtime has made two of its acclaimed documentaries available for free. Peabody Award-nominated and Television Academy Honors recipient 16 SHOTS examines the 2014 shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald by Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke and the cover-up that ensued. Acclaimed director Sacha Jenkins' BURN MOTHERF*CKER, BURN! explores the complicated relationship between the Los Angeles Police Department and the city's Black and minority communities. Both are now streaming on Youtube and SHO.com, and are available to Showtime subscribers on demand. The two films will also be available across multiple television and streaming providers' devices, websites, applications and authenticated online services and their free On Demand channels.

From Oscar®-nominated director Richard Rowley (Dirty Wars), Peabody Award-nominated and Television Academy Honors recipient documentary 16 SHOTS examines the 2014 shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. After the police initially declared the shooting as justified, journalists and activists fought for footage of the event to be released, sending the Chicago Police Department and local Chicago government officials into upheaval as the community demanded justice. Rowley's film dissects the cover-up through first-hand witness accounts which led to the unprecedented conviction that fractured the political landscape of Chicago. 16 SHOTS is a joint production from Midnight Productions, Topic Studios, Impact Partners and Chicago Media Project. Jacqueline Soohen, Michael Bloom, Lisa Leingang, Dan Cogan, Jenny Raskin, Geralyn White Dreyfous, Ken Nolan and Brian Kenney serve as executive producers.

Directed by Sacha Jenkins (WU-TANG CLAN: OF MICS AND MEN), BURN MOTHERF*CKER, BURN! traces a throughline from the 1962 ransacking of a Los Angeles Nation of Islam mosque (which left many injured and one man dead) to the 1965 Watts riots, the rise of L.A. street gangs in the 1970s and '80s and the Rodney King beating in 1991. A year later, on April 29, 1992, four LAPD officers were acquitted by a Simi Valley jury on charges of assault, lighting the Fuse for the uprising that began that evening and continued for days. Through the backdrop of these inflection points, the conflict is seen through the lens of three generations of local residents, community organizers, artists and influencers who lived through the uprising, illustrating the root causes, and the continued struggle for social justice. BURN MOTHERF*CKER, BURN! is produced and directed by Sacha Jenkins, and executive produced by Misha Louy on behalf of Mass Appeal.

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