Production details
Blood in the Face was inspired by a nonfiction book of the same name by author James Ridgeway, who is also credited as one of the film's directors. This documentary was largely shot in Cohoctah Township, Michigan. It focuses on a gathering of neo-Nazis, racists, and conspiracy theorists who expect people of color to ignite a Racial Holy War in the U.S.
Filmmakers Anne Bohlen and Kevin Rafferty take an intentionally leisurely, conversational tack with supremacists who have assembled for lectures and workshops on everything from getting their message out via home videos to moving all like-minded "white Christians" to the Pacific Northwest, especially the Idaho Panhandle.
According to the audio commentary on the Roger & Me DVD, Academy Award-winning American filmmaker Michael Moore appears as an off-screen interviewer because he was originally contacted to arrange a meeting between the filmmakers and the supremacists since he had previously interviewed them for a magazine. At the last minute, the filmmakers backed out of the interview and Moore stepped in to conduct it. Moore is thanked in the end credits.
Michael Moore does appear on camera during one interview, and can be heard during another interview.
While the cinéma vérité filming style of "Blood in the Face" gives audiences an unfiltered exposure to far-right extremist practices, the absence of narration and direction may help recruit more people to adopt such bigoted and harmful worldviews rather than educating them about the impact of extremism in America. Without outwardly criticizing the neo-nazi subjects through either voice-overs or filmmaker interviews, "direct cinema can espouse that which it seeks to expose" (125, Rabinowitz, 1993). The film's failure to challenge problematic ideals and hate speech gave racism and anti-semitism a free nationwide platform, spreading such ideologies across the country in a time preceding social media and the internet. According to critics of the film, "the subjects were delighted that the film was being made by James Ridgeway because they knew it would get wide distribution, unlike a film made by a crew of insiders" (125, Rabinowitz, 1993).
The Atomic Cafe is a 1982 American documentary film directed by Kevin Rafferty, Jayne Loader and Pierce Rafferty. It is a compilation of clips from newsreels, military training films, and other footage produced in the United States early in the Cold War on the subject of nuclear warfare. Without any narration, the footage is edited and presented in a manner to demonstrate how misinformation and propaganda was used by the U.S. government and popular culture to ease fears about nuclear weapons among the American public.
David Eden Lane was an American domestic terrorist, white separatist, neo-Nazi, and convicted felon. A member of the terror organization The Order, he was convicted and sentenced to 190 years in prison for racketeering, conspiracy, and violation of the civil rights of Alan Berg, a Jewish radio talk show host, who prosecutors claimed was murdered by a member of the group through drive-by shooting with Lane acting as driver, though were unsuccessful in getting murder convictions. He died while incarcerated at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana.
James Nolan Mason is an American neo-Nazi. Mason is an ideologue for the Atomwaffen Division, a neo-Nazi terrorist organization. After growing disillusioned with the mass movement approach of neo-Nazi movements, he began advocating for a White supremacist revolution through terrorism. He was referred to as the "Godfather of Fascist Terrorism" in the Fair Observer. He has been convicted of assault and weapons charges, as well as charged with sexual exploitation and possession of pornographic images of a minor. In 2021, Mason is one of only two individuals sanctioned by the Canadian Government on its list of terror-related entities.
John Ross Taylor was a Canadian fascist political activist and party leader prominent in white nationalist circles.
James Fowler Ridgeway was an American investigative journalist. In a career spanning six decades, he covered many topics including automobile industry safety, American universities, far-right movements including the Ku Klux Klan and Neo-Nazism, and campaigns against solitary confinement. He was the Washington correspondent for The Village Voice for over 30 years between the mid-1970s to mid-2000s, and had also worked for The New Republic, and Mother Jones. He had also contributed to magazines and newspapers including The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, The Wall Street Journal, and The Economist among others.
Mark Adrian Collett is a British neo-Nazi, anti-semitic conspiracy theorist and political activist. He was formerly chairman of the Young BNP, the youth division of the British National Party (BNP), and was director of publicity for the party.
Fourteen Words is a reference to two slogans originated by David Eden Lane, one of nine founding members of the defunct white separatist insurrectionary terrorist organization The Order, and are accompanied by the 88 Precepts. The slogans have served as a rallying cry for militant white nationalists internationally. The primary slogan in the Fourteen Words is "We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children", followed by the secondary slogan "Because the beauty of the White Aryan woman must not perish from the Earth".
Kevin Brownlow is a British film historian, television documentary-maker, filmmaker, author, and film editor. He is best known for his work documenting the history of the silent era, having become interested in silent film at the age of eleven. This interest grew into a career spent documenting and restoring film. Brownlow has rescued many silent films and their history. His initiative in interviewing many largely forgotten, elderly film pioneers in the 1960s and 1970s preserved a legacy of early mass-entertainment cinema. He received an Academy Honorary Award at the 2nd Annual Governors Awards given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on 13 November 2010. This was the first occasion on which an Academy Honorary Award was given to a film preservationist.
Prussian Blue was an American white power music duo which was composed of Lynx Vaughan Gaede and Lamb Lennon Gaede, fraternal twins who were born on June 30, 1992, in Bakersfield, California. The duo was formed in early 2003 by their mother April Gaede, a member of the neo-Nazi organization National Vanguard. Their music was described as racist and white supremacist, promoting neo-Nazi rhetoric such as Holocaust denial.
The California Reich was a 1975 documentary film on a group of neo-Nazis in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Tracy, California, USA. They were members of the National Socialist White People's Party, another name for the American Nazi Party that was started by George Lincoln Rockwell. The film received a nomination at the 1976 Academy Awards in the Best Documentary category. It was also screened at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival, but wasn't entered into the main competition.
Kevin Gelshenen Rafferty II was an American documentary film cinematographer, director, and producer, best known for his 1982 documentary The Atomic Cafe.
Clark Reid Martell is an American white supremacist and the former leader of Chicago Area SkinHeads (CASH), which was founded in 1985 by six skinheads under his leadership. This was the first organized neo-Nazi white power skinhead group in the United States. The group was also called Romantic Violence, and was the first US distributor of records and tapes from the English band Skrewdriver.
Format18 was a Russian neo-Nazi group based in the city of Moscow. It was led by Maxim Sergeyevich Martsinkevich, and had close relations with the political party National Socialist Society.
Friends Stand United (FSU) is an American anti-fascist, anti-racist, and anti-drug group. It was founded in the late 1980s by Elgin James in Boston, Massachusetts, evolving out of the hardcore punk scene and in particular the straight edge subculture. While originally having a reputation for fighting against Neo-Nazis and racist groups, in later years FSU members were accused of unprovoked violence and intimidation tactics. The group is classified by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as a street gang.
Paul Craig Cobb is a white nationalist and white supremacist who created the video sharing website Podblanc. He states "my race is my religion", and advocates "racial holy war" in accordance with the tenets of the Creativity religion. Cobb has gained attention from anti-racist and anti-fascist movements, and legal advocacy organizations investigating hate speech and hate crimes, for his "celebration of violence and murder committed against minorities", as documented in his video recordings, online activities, and disruptions of public events.
Thomas Linton Metzger was an American white supremacist, neo-Nazi skinhead leader and Klansman. He founded White Aryan Resistance (WAR), a neo-nazi organization, in 1983. He was a Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1970s. Metzger voiced strong opposition to immigration to the United States, and was an advocate of the Third Position. He was incarcerated in Los Angeles County, California, and Toronto, Ontario, and was the subject of several lawsuits and government inquiries. He, his son, and WAR were fined $12 million as a result of the murder of Mulugeta Seraw, 28, an Ethiopian student, by skinheads in Portland, Oregon, affiliated with WAR.
The Right Stuff (TRS) is a neo-Nazi and white nationalist blog and discussion forum and the host of several podcasts, including The Daily Shoah. Founded by American neo-Nazi Mike Enoch, the website promotes Holocaust denial, and coined the use of "echoes", an antisemitic marker that uses triple parentheses around names to identify Jews. Alex McNabb, a co-host of The Daily Shoah, was fired from his job as an emergency medical technician following violent and racist comments he expressed on the podcast.
Antipodean Resistance (AR) is an Australian neo-Nazi hate group. The group, formed in October 2016, uses the slogan "We're the Hitlers you've been waiting for" and makes use of Nazi symbols such as the swastika and the Nazi salute. AR's logo features the Black Sun and Totenkopf with an Akubra hat, a laurel wreath and a swastika.
Skin is a 2018 American biographical drama film written and directed by Israeli-born filmmaker Guy Nattiv. The film stars Jamie Bell, Danielle Macdonald, Daniel Henshall, Bill Camp, Louisa Krause, Zoe Colletti, Kylie Rogers, Colbi Gannett, Mike Colter, and Vera Farmiga. The film is inspired by the true story of an American neo-Nazi skinhead named Bryon Widner.
