Healing from Hate: Battle for the Soul of a Nation
By Joyce Slaton,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Former alt-righters break good in compelling documentary.
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Healing from Hate: Battle for the Soul of a Nation
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History of Truth
What's the Story?
HEALING FROM HATE: BATTLE FOR THE SOUL OF A NATION is a documentary directed by Peter Hutchison that turns its lens squarely on the history of White supremacy in America. It investigates why the movement has gained fresh currency during the Trump administration, as well as how former White supremacists left the movement and now help others who want to do the same, in the form of groups like the centrally featured Life After Hate. With interviews with anti-hate leaders such as Frank Meeink, the former neo-Nazi whose life was one of the inspirations behind American History X, Jason Downard of the pro-tolerance group Freefromhate, sociologist and anti-hate pundit Dr. Michael Kimmel, and others, the film explores how and why the alt-right movement has sprung up -- and how former haters are helping others to leave it behind.
Is It Any Good?
Thoughtful and compelling, this documentary makes a powerful case for compassion and empathy as the best tools to lead members of hate groups away from their extremist ideologies. It's a message that's easy for the soft-hearted to swallow, but it doesn't make this film a comforting watch. The combination of Albian Gagica's spiky, swastika-laden graphics, Anthony Karen's photographs of angry young White men, and Malcolm Francis' strident electronica score gives viewers a sort of creeping unease that's exacerbated by shots of modern-day headlines and protests that explicitly underline the jump that hate has taken in America during the Trump administration.
Healing from Hate's exploration of mass shootings and murders in Charlottesville, Pittsburgh, El Paso, and Christchurch, New Zealand, also serves to illustrate another serious point: The alt-right movement is one with a real body count. How did we get here? As Dr. Michael Kimmel, author of Healing from Hate: How Young Men Get Into -- and Out of -- Violent Extremism, points out, the internet has vastly escalated the spread of hateful information, while at the same time, its anonymity allows people to hatch their beliefs in safe secrecy. Then, there's the emotional pull: "They feel dispossessed, as if something's been taken from them," says Kimmel, while an ex-skinhead sums it up like this: "When you come up from nothing and you got nothing, a little bit of power feels so good." By illustrating how people can turn from hate to acceptance, Healing from Hate makes it clear that support, community, and tolerance have their own power, one that changes minds -- and lives.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the history of hate groups in America and how they've changed over time. How are the KKK and alt-right groups similar? How are they different? Has the cycle of violence and reprisal, protests and counter-protests changed over time? If so, how? Why are groups that demonize some kind of "other" perpetually appealing to some?
Talk about the references to and images of violence in Healing from Hate. How did that affect you? What's shown and not shown? How does it compare to the kind of violence you see in action movies? Which has more impact? Why?
Do you consider the interviewees in Healing from Hate role models? What motivates them? How do they demonstrate character strengths such as compassion, communication, empathy, and teamwork?
What role does the internet play in enabling the alt-right, according to the film? How do people find hate online?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming: January 22, 2021
- Director: Peter D. Hutchison
- Studio: Freestyle Digital Media
- Genre: Documentary
- Character Strengths: Communication , Compassion , Empathy , Teamwork
- Run time: 85 minutes
- MPAA rating: NR
- Last updated: August 27, 2022
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