Welcome to Leith

Dir: Michael Beach Nichols, Christopher K. Walker

2015

****

Michael Beach Nichols and Christopher K. Walker's terrifying film Welcome to Leith documents the arrival of the notorious white supremacist Craig Cobb to a small town in North Dakota. Leith is about as small as small town gets. With a population of just 24 including young children, even the town's mayor admits that he wasn't even sure what a white supremacist was until he was informed of who Craig Cobb really was. Cobb had bought a house in Leith for just $500. He then bought as many cheap plots as he could get his hands on and encouraged many of his white supremacist, Neo-Nazi and Nationalist friends to come and join him with the overall idea that they could take over the town, establishing an all-white community. His 'racial holy war', 'Creativity religion' and Nazi rhetoric is as bizarre as it is terrifying. It is clear in the documentary that while the people of Leith don't entirely understand their situation they do know that Cobb is a dangerous man to have as a neighbour. Many people rallied round the people of Leith and people's disgust was heard loud and clear, the only problem was that Cobb was entitled to live where he wanted by law. There are times in Welcome to Leith where it seemed that Cobb and friends were the victims, persecuted for their beliefs by their fellow townsfolk. This where the rather passive documentary gets interesting. Cobb clearly relished being the victim as it only helped him get his message across. When he is seen to be walking around the town with a loaded weapon and charged accordingly, it is unfortunately the innocence of the townsfolk that let him go free. After being charged with aggressive behaviour, it was the feeling of threat felt by the locals that should have seen him locked up, unfortunately, some of the proud residence, not being the brightest of people, claimed that they 'Weren't scared of no one' and he was let off with a plea bargain. Walker and Nichols managed to infiltrate the town rather effectively, with both sides of the conflict co-operating with the filming. One of the more interesting and frightening lessons learned in the film was that even though there are regular incidents every year involving white-lead hate crimes by Neo-Nazi groups (some of which have involved multiple murders), since 9/11, all government funding and bureau investigations are concentrated on Islamic fundamental groups and all investigations into white supremacist hate groups has stopped. The effective anti-climactic conclusion is a chilling reminder that this problem hasn't gone away and doesn't look like it will for quite some time.