Alt-Right: Age of Rage

Alt-Right: Age of Rage was well-received at its world premiere at Austin's SXSW Film Festival. It provides a detailed examination of the ideology of Richard Spencer, Jared Taylor, David Duke and several of the other so-called "alt-right" leaders. What it really reveals is that this movement is just a rebranding of the same old KKK white supremacists who are wearing suits instead of hoods. Director Adam Lough spent time with these cretins and let them do much of the talking so that showed much of their true colors. (It actually reminds me of the film Jesus Camp where the directors let a nasty ugly group of individuals reveal themselves before the cameras.) Still at 112 minutes the film was really too long and showed too much coverage of these individuals in a way that became slow and repetitive at times. By focusing on the coverage of their most recent events such as Charlottesville, they failed to really provide historical context for these movements and connect them back to the long history of white supremacy. They could have benefited from including historical interviews with academics who have studied the history of the far rigtht. They also could have done more to linked the alt-right much more directly to the coded language of Trump's 2016 campaign and to the writings of Steve Bannon and Breitbart. This movement gained credibility through its rebranding which allowed it to promote the Trump movement. The heart of the film was the powerful voices of Richard Cohen of the SPLC and activist Daryl Lamont Jenkins who each in their own way are fighting back against the alt-right. Daryl is a truly heroic figure. Still there were often ideas that were raised and not followed through on. At one point, Cohen appears to critique Antifa tactics for opposing the alt-right, but instead of exploring this insight, the director just moves on. While the film is revealing as a starting point for exploring the alt-right it lacks direction and scholarly exploration of this important subject matter which should concern all of us. Good start, but it could have been a lot better.