The documentary Homegrown is playing at Thalian Hall on Friday, Nov 22nd at 7:15 PM, as part of the Cucalorus Film Festival. Tickets are available here, and the full schedule of films is available here. The interview below has been edited for length and clarity, but the audio in this story includes a lengthier discussion of the film.
Kelly Kenoyer: I'm here with Michael Primo, the director of Homegrown: a documentary cataloging the lead up and aftermath of January 6. Thank you so much for joining me.
Michael Primo: Thank you. It's pleasure to be here.
KK: So you have a background of covering social movements in your documentaries, but I'm wondering what drew you to embed yourself with the Proud Boys?
MP: We started this film in 2018 because we were really interested in understanding what the conservative movement was fighting for, and in particular, why people felt it was necessary to use violence to achieve their political objectives. And so wanting to have a better perspective on what what drove that and what justifies that, we set out on this investigation.
KK: I know that extremist movements like the Proud Boys can be kind of mistrusting of the media, so I'm curious how you were able to gain their trust, to be able to embed with them in this way.
MP: Well, you know, I think part of it is we have worked for so many years covering different social movements on the right and the left, who fundamentally have a kind of similar critique, which is that the status quo is broken.
We live in a society that is increasingly rigged in favor of corporations and the elites. And I think with this sort of basic understanding, we just had a place to start from. And I was like, I want to know genuinely why you do what you do.
KK: That sequence of footage that you have on January 6 is chilling. You're cutting from your camera, being jostled by a violent crowd, to body cam and security footage that's focused on your subject, Chris, as he's assaulting officers on the Capitol. Can you tell me what it was like to be on the front lines of an actual insurrection that day.
MP: Yeah, it was wild to be in Washington, DC on January 6, because this event, this day, was so publicly planned. It was so clearly stated across Fox News and everywhere else that the plan was to storm the Capitol. We knew that that was what was the intention to happen, but we never anticipated getting anywhere near the US Capitol. We just assumed that law enforcement, having received the same public information that we did, would have the capital completely surrounded in a way that would prevent anyone who was not authorized to be there to get anywhere close to the US Capitol.
And so we were completely shocked by what happened, but not totally surprised. And we know, I think a lot of people have seen footage of January 6, but I think what we have is a completely unique and unprecedented look at that day through the lens of a participant as he fought his way into the Capitol.
KK: So this documentary came out over the summer, ahead of the election, which many worried would be similarly contested, but with the outcome of President Trump being re-elected, that's no longer as much of a threat. So I'm curious what you think the lessons are that we can learn from watching this documentary today.
MP: Yeah, I think we live in such a polarized environment that it's very hard for people to understand the perspective of where people who they disagree with are coming from. And so I think what we want to do with this film is help people have a broader, more rich understanding of what's motivating people. Because I think, you know, people will see this film and they'll see people that you know, on the outside they may think, Oh, these people are fighting for an ideology or some of these bigger ideas, but we what we hope they discover is people who are looking for belonging, looking for purpose and looking for some sense of community in a world that they feel like is slipping away from them.
KK: Well, Michael Primo, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me. Thank
MP: You for having me. It's a pleasure to be here, and we're really excited to be at the Cucalorus Film Festival. It's one of our favorites.
