Undercover: Exposing the Far Right

A very well put together film which follows some extremely brave people from the UK based antifascist charity Hope not Hate. They film undercover, infiltrate the far right groups and disclose despicable and revealing conversations by UK fascists at their meet ups and rallys.

The film focuses in part on the Human Diversity Foundation who are manipulating genetic data in very wrong and evil ways.... ie: scientific racism. They want to use this false data to argue for what they call 'remigration' ( reversal of immigration).

Some far right media savvy tactics are explained. How they feed on fear and disbelief and shift the general view of what's acceptable and normal using the concept of the Overton window.

A film that clearly shows how close the surface modern fascism is. A very educational and gripping film.

There's only one other review of this (IMO) excellent documentary on IMDB currently, hopefully this one will provide a tad of counterbalance.

I was aware of Hope Not Hate prior to watching this, but only on the limited level that they are an anti-fascist organisation. I had no idea that as well as highlighting and campaigning against bigotry and racism, they also place themselves in the uncomfortable situation of infiltrating organisations peddling such views to highlight the bits they leave out of the public soundbites and reveal how deranged and dangerous the people within them actually are. They succeed on this.

This documentary style is fairly standard fare, but the content conveys exactly what is needed and the arc and chase to potentially highlight the rich funder of an underground modern day eugenics organisation (tenner if you can guess which race they favour!) is quite thrilling.

The Hope Not Hate team are heroes in my eyes.

It was reasonably put together for the first half, but quite quickly started to fall apart. It seems to draw in countless elements such as British Fascism from the 1920s, British nationalism from the 1970s, social disorder from contemporary times, 'race science' enthusiasts from the same period, Tommy Robinson, far-Right political groups, a nod to Hitler's SS etc etc and in the end, apart from the emotivism, one is left with a jumbled mess. The danger seems to be 'everywhere' and everything the filmmakers shine their camera or their outrage archeology archive footage researcher on. The lack of focus, the lack of a consistent underlying argument meant it will be quickly forgotten.

This is a watchable documentary that takes us on the (terrifying) journey of a group of Hope Not Hate investigators who go undercover with far right groups to find out what they actually say and share behind closed doors. Beautifully made and with a narrative that is clearly imparted. A vital documentary in these difficult times.

We are introduced to a number of journalists, and a number of far right activists, across the documentary, and what is terrifying is how indistinguishable they are - you could meet any of these men at any point and not immediately clock them as far right instigators with alarming views.

Love the way the doc is led by the journalists sharing their skills with each other and us. As the undercover journey throws up moments of uninhibited misogyny and racism, the film drops in the motivation behind each member of the team's commitment to Hope not Hate. Their personal stories pepper the thrilling unfolding narrative. They are diverse voices that reinforce the breadth of opposition to violent far right hatred. Their humanity emphasises the narrow mindedness of the fascist groups they are exposing and diminishes their posturing.

This gripping filmmaking shows in real time what positive action looks like.