First in the Barney Gage Memorial Film Series, a showing of the multi-award winning film White Right: Meeting the Enemy, by filmmaker Deeyah Kahn, will be held on Sunday, September 25, 2022 at 4 pm simultaneously both in-person in the UU Church Sanctuary and remotely via Zoom.
As fimmaker Deeyah Kahn grew up in Norway as a Pakistani immigrant and Muslim, she both encountered bias and was taken to anti-racism rallies as a young child. Her father promised her things would be better in the future, but as the future unfolded, she was witnessing even greater racism and xenophobia in both Europe and America. Her film is asking why.
In this extraordinary film, she sits face-to-face with white supremacists who were often the proponents of the “alt-right” ideologies and even found herself dangerously in the midst of the infamous Unite the Right march in Charlottesville, VA in 2017.
While listening to vitriol from those she interviewed is powerful, what makes this film extraordinary is Kahn’s skillful way of engaging with those who see her as an enemy. “Rather than dismiss these men as monsters, she’s determined to discover the men behind the masks.” She tries to get beyond the scare stories to the real stories, behind the headlines to the human beings, and challenges her own prejudices as well as theirs.
She is a model of how to be in our divided world today.
A trailer is available here: https://fuuse.net/white-right-meeting-the-enemy-fuuse-film-deeyah-khan/
The showing of this film is free and open to the public. It is dedicated in memory of Barney Gage, who was devoted to the showing of this film as he was to many issues of social and political importance. A discussion will follow the film, both online and in person.