Netflix pick for 5/23/16 – ‘Welcome to Leith’

As heard in episode 176 of Cinema Crespodiso.

“Welcome to Leith” is a documentary about an asshole who tried to buy up enough land in a tiny North Dakota town in order to turn it into a white supremacist safe haven, with himself positioned as their leader. And here’s the M. Night Shyamalan like twist – this isn’t an old untold story from the 1800’s about some old ex-slave owner or something like that, this whole thing happened in 2012, just a few scant years ago.

And now here in this foul year of our Lord 2016, thanks to a certain political and cultural climate in the air we have a whole bevy of openly hateful racists and bigots who have become emboldened to share their retrograde, backwater and completely destructive worldviews with anyone who will care to listen, making documentaries like this all that more important because we, as an evolving species, have ignored these kinds of people and allowed them to wallow in their ignorance for long enough, and we need something like to at least open peoples’ eyes and show them that “post-racial America” is just as bad if not worse than the America that has come before it. 

From my original review of “Welcome to Leith“ from the 2015 Florida Film Festival:

But then some of it has more of a “real life” feel; instead of shoot outs and violent revenge we get legal loopholes and county ordinances, and we get all the character complexity we need when we see, within minutes of each other, a scene in which the Mayor grills up some meat for everyone for dinner and another scene in which the Iraq War veteran hate monger bakes delicious cakes for his cute kids and gives us a glimpse at his hand written recipes (which included one for “bannanna” pancakes or something). He even sees the irony in it, telling the camera that even white supremacists eat normal food, so it’s not like these people don’t know they are outsiders and how they are viewed. They may be filled with hate but that doesn’t necessarily mean they are totally stupid and are not self-aware.

That’s the thing – these people, whom are horrible and hate filled, are still people, and when they talk about wanting to have a place to live and how it is illegal for them to be driven out of a neighborhood just because of what they believe, it is hard to argue with that, because that’s the truth. The First Amendment protects all speech and personal liberty, and the root of their argument is true, just because they are yokels who like to yell “White Power!” doesn’t mean they should be run out of town. But in this case, we are not talking about some racists who are being quietly racists within their own homes – these are people with an audaciously open agenda to take over this town and transform it into something else, while simultaneously condoning violence and hate crimes against non-white people (and the white people who are not on their side). It’s one thing to be pissed that Archie Bunker is moving in next door, it’s another thing when David Duke shows up in your neighborhood.

So “Welcome to Leith” is a pretty nuanced film, as least as much as it could be when dealing with people who are so cartoonishly hate filled. They put out flags on their lawns for nations that were “formally pure Aryan” like Germany and Norway, along with their own organizations flags, and it just makes one finally see the need for homeowners associations, know what I mean? And when a racist fella (I won’t say which one) finds out on television that he is not 100% European but actually has a decent amount of Sub-Saharan African in his genes, the delight to be had from that moment is wonderful. Oh the joyous irony of that reveal.

See this real life insanity for yourself right here on the good old Netflix Instant and keep a watchful eye on your neighbors because some of them may be insane racist assholes. They are easy to identify. They will have “Trump 2016” signs in their front yards.