* -..ionsimmwoomprOMPOSSOIll , INSIGHT Springtime for Hitler "Blood in the Face," to be screened .Nov. 1 at the DIA, explores the disturbing world of white supremacists DAVID HOLZEL Special to The Jewish News M mutes into the film, Blood In The Face, which documents a na- tional gathering of white supremacist groups in rural Michigan, the camera treats viewers to a close-up of an attractive young woman. Her hair spills out of a black cap, she has tied a light blue bandanna around her neck, and over her black coat she wears a Nazi arm- band. "You don't look like a typical Nazi," the inter- - viewer tells her. "You could be in a Coppertone commer- cial." The woman smiles and looks away, embarrassed by a compliment that in any other context would be a non sequitur. Trying to dispel her self-consciousness and to show she isn't just a pretty face, the woman changes the subject to matters of substance. "I'm not just against Jew- ish people," she says bright- ly. "It's also blacks." Throughout its 75 minutes, Blood in the Face happily metes out lengths of rope to the hatemongers who gathered in 1986 in Cohoctah, Mich., — a farm near Howell — and invites them to hang them- selves. Like the Coppertone Nazi, many willingly comp- ly. It's Springtime for Hitler meets cinema verite. But filmmakers Anne Bohlen, Kevin Rafferty and James Ridgeway have done Mel Brooks' The Producers one better. Instead of creating Nazi characters and demolishing them through their own foolishness, Blood in the Face's creators have demonstrated that real life Former Detroiter David Holzel writes for the Atlanta Jewish Times. 80 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1991 is far more grotesque than fiction. Between family picnic lun- ches, white supremacist leaders — some wearing battle camouflage uniforms — voice their belief that their race is drowning in a sea of non-whites, homosex- uals, communists and Jews. The solution, stated both implicitly and explicitly, is revolution to restore America to its white, Chris- tian roots. "I'm anti-mud people," declares one speaker. "I hate Filipinos. I hate 'em all. We won't take anyone in our clan below Milano, Italy. They're just not our people. We're more Nazi than the Nazis. All I can say is, sieg heil and let's go eat." "This—is the lunatic fr- inge," says one film critic. "They come across as ab- solute wackos. You would have to be utterly suscepti- ble to their arguments to buy into it at all." N of everyone agrees the truths suggested by Blood in the Face are self-evident. (The title refers to the belief that only whites possess a conscience because they are the only ones capable of blushing.) The film employs no narrator, no statistics, and only the occa- sional ironic juxtaposition — such as showing footage of Holocaust victims when a speaker is denying the Holo- caust happened. This doesn't sit well with the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith. In August, the ADL's southeast re- gional office sent a letter to its board, rabbis and others, stating its objection to show- ing the film in Atlanta. "ADL rejects the theory that reason and tolerance are advanced by allowing bigots to vent their hatred without challenge or re- sponse," the letter read in part. "Although we do not plan to protest . . . neither will we be encouraging at- tendance." "Obviously we take an- other position," said Anne Dubler, museum currator in Atlanta who pointed out the film has been screened around the country, often co- sponsored by human rights coalitions or as a fund-raiser for Jewish organizations. "The film forces us into a direct confrontation, rather than mediating with experts and statistics that distance us and makes us more com- fortable. This way is scarier and thus more instructive." Filmmaker Anne Bohlen says most viewers already will have heard the opinions expressed in Blood in the Face. "I've shown the film to blacks, to Spanish-speaking people, and most feel that this is familiar. It's not news to them," she said. "I feel everybody has a context for this." She says the most frightening thing about the white supremacist move- ment is its infiltration into the American mainstream. David Duke, a former grand wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, is the most prominent example. Mr. Duke, a Louisiana state representative, is running for governor. "They're on the rise and they're organi- zing," Ms. Bohlen said. "They're trying to get on grand juries and organize prisons. They run for office just to get news coverage." Like David Duke, many of the movement's leaders are anything but yahoos. "Pastor" Robert Miles, who organized the Michigan gathering, "is very news savvy," Ms. Bohlen says. Interviewed in Blood in the Face, Mr. Miles comes across avuncular and softspoken. He doesn't advocate violence as do many of his colleagues. But elsewhere in the film, he is shown officiating at a wedding, dressed in the hood and robes of the Ku Klux Latter-day Nazis in Blood in the Face: Do they really blush?