Undercover Mission Exposes the Far Righta researcher documentary The film, which is the work of the British anti-extremist group Hope Not Hate, is finally premiering at the festival in the The Frontlight section. 2024 International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IFDA).

Havana Marking’s document exposing the activities of a far-right network in the UK promoting “racial science” and their support from Silicon Valley funder Andrew Conru. BFI London Film Festival last month but suddenly withdrew from the program. The LFF raised safety concerns for spectators and staff. At the heart of the film were fears of retaliation from far-right groups.

“I found this extremely disappointing,” says director Marking. “Before anything happened, there was fear beforehand. There was no real threat, just the fear that something might happen. “As the far right becomes more and more emboldened, these things will become more and more common, and people will become more and more afraid.”

Hidden The marking was conducted over two years as it tracked Hope Not Hate activists who infiltrated far-right movements. The film explores how extremists combine threatened or actual violence with sophisticated social media campaigns, bringing pseudo-scientific claims of racial superiority into the mainstream. The documentary, supported by Channel 4 and broadcast in the UK on October 21, also made a splash in the real world. Andrew Conru has withdrawn his support of the Foundation for Human Diversity after it was revealed that he donated more than $1 million to the eugenics research group. British anti-Islam campaigner turned extremist influencer Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon, aka Tommy Robinson, was convicted based on evidence presented by Hope Not Hate. He is currently serving an 18-month prison sentence.

But to talk Hollywood Reporter ahead HiddenThe growing power of far-right political parties in the U.S. and Europe could make it more difficult to finance and broadcast such parties, Marking said at the IFDA gala. documentaries in the future. “Public service broadcasters are increasingly risk averse and worried about offending whoever is in government if they lose funding,” he says.

How did the reactions to your film change after Donald Trump’s victory in the US elections?

That’s a really interesting question because we’re trying to get the film into American film festivals and find an American buyer. And the optimism that it would happen has completely changed (following the election) and it now seems very unlikely we’ll get a sale in America. In fact, it has been somewhat like this for several years, since the first Trump administration. Public service broadcasters are becoming more risk-averse and worried about offending whoever is in government if they lose funding.

Do you see a big difference between Europe and the USA in this regard? Some European festivals now appear to be positioning themselves as a “political resistance” to Trump and the far right.

Yes, there are some of these, and it’s really exciting. Again there is a feeling that we need to double down, that (political) films are more important than ever. But for European film festivals, it depends on where they get their funding from. I know anecdotally that some smaller festivals in East Germany, for example, where the (far-right) AfD party is responsible for municipal financing, are becoming more tense. It kind of goes both ways. We’re making our premiere Hidden IDFA and the Netherlands currently have a far-right government, but IDFA has been very supportive of our film and is excited to show it; They think this is absolutely necessary in the current situation.
their environment.

Your movie was supposed to premiere in London, but it was pulled at the last minute…

Yes, we had a situation where our film was funded by the BFI and the documentary community here and we got a lot of support, but then London Film Festival attracted us for security reasons which I found quite disappointing. It was the fear before anything happened. There was no real threat, just the fear that something might happen. As the far right becomes more and more emboldened, these things will become more and more common, and people will become more and more afraid.

We have seen this at other film festivals; films were seen being withdrawn due to fear of protests or disruption. Do you worry that there will be a general policy of risk aversion, a kind of pre-censorship of movie plots to make sure there’s no danger of violence?

This was our biggest fear about LFF; This could mean that they would be too scared to choose a movie like ours anymore. After all, the London Film Festival is not like IDFA or the Sheffield documentary festival; These are primarily documentary festivals, they understand political films, they understand how to deal with scary situations, they know which places are safe and which are not. The London Film Festival is more like a celebrity-led, red carpet festival. I think it took them by surprise and they didn’t know how to handle it. I hope going forward they can learn from the experience and put protocols in place to ensure these films are not silenced.

Your film had real-world consequences. Andrew Conru withdrew his funding from the Human Diversity Foundation and Tommy Robinson went to prison. But despite the far-right’s electoral success, do you think naming and shaming can still have the same effect? Elon Musk, now the richest man in the world, openly supports Donald Trump, makes far-right speeches, and is seemingly shameless.

Yes, this is an interesting and quite scary situation. The really interesting thing about the far right is its coded speeches. Tommy Robinson is very smart about showing off and not saying what he’s really thinking. Elon Musk has drawn his line in the sand as to where he stands politically, but still claims he’s not a racist. What our film and journalism does is expose many people who claim to be “just patriots.” Those who claim to be “just scientists”. We lay out these claims and show the real insights behind them. Harry Shukman, the journalist in the film, records this with a hidden camera. There is no denying this. There’s no “fake news” in this. It is not possible to claim that the movie is biased. They said what they thought.

So much of what Trump says is reflected in the film – constantly saying Kamala (Harris) has a low IQ, talking about the genes and poisoning of the country – these are clearly eugenics dog whistles that I don’t think people in the wider world really understand. These are heavily coded dog whistles. It is now the duty of the film and the journalists to peel away these layers and reveal what people are really thinking behind closed doors. That’s all we can do.

In fact, my moral courage and my backbone were strengthened while making this film, because there is a real moral clarity on this subject. From my perspective, you can’t be neutral about racism. You cannot be neutral about Islamophobia and antisemitism. The courage of the people in our film is the same moral courage we should demand from our institutions, our film festivals, our funders. This is not the time to wring your hands. This is the time to put some things into action.

The response to our film was incredible. We got five stars GuardFive stars from the left-leaning press and the right-leaning The Telegraph. The audience’s reaction and participation surprised us all. Funders are more scared, but audiences are braver than ever, they want to watch this stuff.