Uncomfortable Proximity to Far-Proper Extremism in Bloated Proud Boys Documentary

It has been 5 years since a throng of Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and different right-wing extremists stormed the capitol constructing. A violent protest towards the election of Joe Biden — or, actually, an try at offering bodily assist for Donald Trump’s refusal to surrender the presidency — the now notorious riot continues to be an ongoing matter of debate. In a seeming try at humanization, Michael Premo’s documentary Homegrownprofiles a handful of members within the weeks main as much as the election in November 2021 and the next, nationwide, so-called “Cease the Steal” uprisings.

Coming when it does, a yr into Trump’s second non-consecutive time period, the documentary has a distinctly dated really feel. A lot of the footage is illuminating, significantly when it focuses on the complexities of former Proud Boys chief of Salt Lake Metropolis Thad Cisneros, however numerous what’s included doesn’t add a lot to an already crowded dialog. After its extra attention-grabbing first hour, the intimate entry will get tiresome, and it is laborious to say what’s gained by being launched to the private lives of the members of a infamous hate group.

Homegrown Can’t Maintain Its Floor Previous Its First Hour

Premo’s fundamental topics are Cisneros and Chris Quaglin, the latter of whom was on the entrance traces of the capitol assault and was initially sentenced to 12 years in jail (Trump later commuted his and a number of other different sentences after solely 4 years). Between the 2, it’s Thad who complicates the favored conception of the Proud Boys, since he appears genuinely dedicated, if naively so, to discovering frequent floor with liberals and leftists. Although, due to his tenuous collaboration with Jacarri Kelley, who helps to run the Northern Utah Black Lives Matter chapter, the Proud Boys had Cisneros previously disavowed. One of many funnier throughlines of the movie is the infinite intra-organizational debates about who they need to be aligning with. Protestations that they aren’t White supremacists are adopted up by another person arguing for the inclusion of Nazis.

Homegrown maybe works greatest as an lively illustration of how righteous indignation at authentic social issues may be rerouted into bigotry. On the root of Cisneros and Quaglin’s complaints in regards to the American political system is a frustration with monetary insecurity and the rising wealth divide between the privileged and dealing lessons. Wildest of all on this regard is the revelation that Cisneros discovered his technique to the far proper after having watched Michael Moore’s anti-Iraq struggle scourge Fahrenheit 9/11. A lot of the working class has dissolved, and the wealthy are richer than ever earlier than, however as an alternative of focusing that anger at, say, the monetary establishments that had been bailed out in 2008, the Proud Boys have directed their members’ hatred on the Black inhabitants, the LGBTQIA+ inhabitants, and immigrants of all stripes.

However Quaglin is one other story. The New Jersey carpenter doesn’t precisely change the way in which one may understand a typical Proud Boy insurrectionist. He owns a military’s price of weapons, cautions towards “unlawful” immigrants, and is mostly emblematic of a subset of the citizens that makes use of Black Lives Matter and the non-corporeal ANTIFA as catch-all boogeymen. He persistently makes reprehensible selections so as to additional his ingratiation into the group, and goes to the January sixth riot regardless of his spouse’s protestations — who was 8 1/2 months pregnant on the time.

Homegrown maybe works greatest as an lively illustration of how righteous indignation at authentic social issues may be rerouted into bigotry.

Spending practically two hours with Quaglin and his comrades is a tough activity. It could be one factor if being uncovered to his mind was useful in understanding his ilk, however there simply is not a lot there there. He isn’t significantly eloquent, he does not have an official place, and he by no means learns his lesson — even after his spouse information for divorce after his launch from jail. With out something new to say, it is laborious to justify being subjected to homophobic epithets and race-based mockery.

Each Cisneros and Quaglin are solely all that attention-grabbing of their persistent hypocrisy. It is baffling to listen to far-right racists complain in regards to the so-called violence of the left as they clutch AR-15’s and overtly discuss guerrilla warfare towards the federal government. There’s a point of sympathy expressed for the homicide of George Floyd, however then Quaglin argues that “90%” of deaths by armed police are justified. “Do not break the legislation,” he says.

Maybe most noxiously, the Proud Boys are repeatedly seen chanting “we’re western chauvinists/ we refuse to apologize for creating the fashionable world,” a declaration that’s as weird as it’s deplorable. Sure, these individuals aren’t precisely good position fashions, but it surely’s laborious to level to a concise message we’re supposed to remove from attending to know individuals who communicate of “conventional household values” as cowl for racism, sexism and xenophobia. The title suggests these are homegrown terrorists, however is that actually new? Extra urgent is a query the movie does not actually reply: what are the roots that permit them develop, and the way can we weed them out?

Homegrown streams completely on the streaming platform GATHR on January sixth, 2026.