White paradise I have no problem with orange, green, black, white or brown people. I have a problem with stupid.
Somewhere in North Dakota, in a picturesque place, almost untouched by civilization, which is the perfect embodiment of the expression “middle of nowhere”, is the humble town of Leath. Only twenty-four people live in it, and power in the city is passed down from generation to generation - the current mayor is the son of the previous mayor, who is also the son of the previous mayor. Not only have you ever heard of Lita, but even most people in North Dakota and its surroundings. That all changed in 2013, when a twenty-fifth resident appeared in the city - a quiet and lonely old man named Craig Cobb. Since Lith had fallen into disrepair in the nineties and the old-timers could not remember the last time someone wanted to settle here, everyone was happy even with a gloomy neighbor like Cobb. No one could have imagined that the city would soon be flooded with a huge number of journalists, because it would become the site of a battle between two opposing views of life and country, and twenty-four inhabitants of Lita would fight against a few neo-Nazis who decided to build in Lita the white paradise they had long dreamed of. Michael Nichols and Christopher Walker’s documentary “Welcome to Lith” chronicles this unique struggle, where participants are ready to stand up for their point of view as if the future of the whole world does not depend on them.
Unsurprisingly, for his plan to take over and turn a single slice of America into the dream of any far-right radical, Craig Cobb chose Lith - of the twenty-four inhabitants of the city, only one was black. What a surprise Cobb and his loyal collaborator, Kaynon Dayton, who moved to Lith with his wife and five children, equally devoted to white supremacy with all their heart and soul, when their comrades in color were horrified at the thought of living alongside a militant white supremacist. Craig Cobb was prepared for a lot, but not that it would be difficult to capture Lith, and his opponents would have a clear position that they would be ready to defend by any legal means. “Welcome to Lith” is a story about people with a tremendous sense of social consciousness, devoted to the democratic ideals of the country’s founding fathers and simply common sense. It’s also a story about community — such resistance wouldn’t happen in a big city where people don’t feel how one person’s decisions can affect everyone else.
A good journalist always tries to get the opinions of everyone involved in a conflict or story, regardless of their personal sympathies, and present you with both points of view so that you can decide on which side to take. A good documentary maker does the same, and that's what Michael Nichols and Christopher Walker can boast of. They tried to understand not only the residents of the city, but also Craig Cobb himself, who calls himself one of the most dangerous neo-Nazis in the world, who seems to be trying to look you in the eyes directly from the screen, and his eternal younger associate Kaynan Dunton, who always hides his eyes. The filmmakers also did a good job of showing the significance of this story for modern America, providing brief but succinct information about the crimes committed by neo-Nazis in the country and noting general trends. "Welcome to Leath" is worth watching not only because of the interest in the story of Craig Cobb, who continues to try to take over cities, but also to understand that white nationalism in modern America is not just Dylan Roof.