White Man Walking

It's hard to know what to make of 'White Man Walking'. Of course, protest marches have a long tradition in the civil rights struggle, but these are a demonstration of collective power. If a random stranger with a camera asked me to walk with them, even for a cause I believed in, I would probably say 'no'. And is it really a surprise that 'Black Lives Matter' is not universally popular in the American south? Nonetheless, the degree of ignorance and racism, and the willingness to threaten violence, that are exposed here are nonetheless shocking, especially as a white man is the object. Could a black man have done this and even made it out alive? The question sounds melodramatic, but the number of guns on visible display certainly raises the question. So somehow this film is both a one-man stunt, and yet also genuinely worrying. It was made during the 2020 U. S. election campaign; four years on, it's hard to say we're in a better place.