White Right: Meeting the Enemy
Directed by Deeyah Khan
UK/USA | 2017 | Documentary | 60 min
Film Source: Women Make Movies
Awards / Winner: 2018 International Current Affairs Emmy Awards
Sponsor: Patricia Fontaine | Co-sponsor: Peace & Justice Center
*Followed by Skype Q&A with Director Khan
“I am the daughter of immigrants. I am a Muslim. I am a feminist. I am a lefty liberal. And what I want to ask you is: Am I your enemy?” asks director Deeyah Khan at the beginning of the film as she sits down to interview Jared Taylor, a well-known American white supremacist. Throughout this one-hour documentary, she meets face-to-face with Neo-Nazis and white nationalists, including Richard Spencer, and attends the now infamous Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, as she seeks to understand the personal and political motivations behind the resurgence of far-right extremism in the U.S. Some of these men grow fond of Kahn and gradually admit that their views about Muslims do not apply to her. The effect of their superficial transformation reinforces the underlying message that we tend to hate those we don’t know and don’t want to know. Khan has a tradition of exploring the reasons behind extreme actions and hatred: In 2015, she made Jihad: The Story of Others, examining why young Muslims become jihadists. ~ OY