Los Angeles – Public Broadcast Service (PBS) documentary, The New Los Angeles, premieres on KCET (Channel 28) on Thursday, April 27th at 10 p.m. The film, which examines the transformation of Los Angeles from 1973 to 2005, features the community work of Assemblymember Karen Bass.

It chronicles Assemblymember Bass’ efforts as a community activist by highlighting her involvement in the social justice movement that fostered inner city ethnic alliances and coalitions builders. The film focuses on Bass as the founder of the Community Coalition, a community organizing institution where she led the fight that eliminated or converted dozens of local liquor stores, closed motels known as drug trafficking centers, improved the quality and selection of foods in local supermarkets, and secured millions of dollars in repairs to local schools. This powerful portrait of a city in transition begins in 1973 with the election of Mayor Tom Bradley, the first African American mayor of a major city without a black majority, and concludes with the political empowerment of Latinos and the election of Los Angeles’s current Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Los Angeles’s first Latino mayor in more than 130 years.

The documentary archives the city’s journey through dealing with varies issues over the years: immigration, globalization, de-industrialization and a shrinking middle class. This story profiles the efforts of immigrants and the working poor, in coalition with community organizations, labor unions and elected officials, to transform the environment in which they live and to make the city of Los Angeles accountable to its residents. The New Los Angeles explores the shifting political ground that is shaping the city’s future and demonstrating that change is possible. It’s about forging coalitions, nurturing inclusion, seeding innovation, salvaging identity and building community—issues that resonate throughout America and the world.