Netflix has released the trailer for the documentary short, A Love Song for Latasha, which they will debut next month. Latasha Harlins was shot and killed by store owner Soon Ja Du after she assumed the 15-year-old was stealing a bottle of orange juice. Her murder came just days after the videotaped beating of Rodney King at the hands of Los Angeles police. Du was fined only $500 and sentenced to five years probation and 400 hours of community service.

Harlins’ death, as well as the beating of King, are often said to be the catalyst of the 1992 Los Angeles race riots, which culminated after frustrations over the lack of discrimination of Black residents in Los Angeles in the ’90s.  Sophia Nahli Allison is the director of this short.

Here’s the official description from Netflix: The injustice surrounding the shooting death of 15-year-old Latasha Harlins at a South Central Los Angeles store became a flashpoint for the city’s 1992 civil uprising. As the Black community expressed its profound pain in the streets, Latasha’s friends and family privately mourned the loss of a vibrant child whose full story was never in the headlines. Nearly three decades later, director Sophia Nahli Allison’s A LOVE SONG FOR LATASHA removes Latasha from the context of her death and rebuilds an archive of a promising life lost. Oral history and memories from Latasha’s best friend and cousin converge in a dreamlike portrait that shows the impact one brief but brilliant life can have.

The film had an acclaimed festival run, where it screened at Sundance, AFI Fest, Tribeca and more. Watch the trailer below:

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Photo: Netflix

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