The people that made "Welcome to Leith" did a nice job of presenting a reasonably well balanced and interesting story. While they obviously didn't like the white supremacists featured in the film, they also were sure to present the complete story...warts and all.The town of Leith is extremely tiny and located in the Dakotas. When a crazed white supremacist arrives there and starts buying up property, folks start getting concerned. When he then starts inviting in other like-minded jerks, the town starts to react...strongly. What follows is a film that consists of showing the tiny town's efforts to get rid of the supremacists and prevent them from taking over Leith. Unfortunately, when the neo-Nazis actually do something that might be illegal, some of the townsfolks manage to undo the state's case by talking out of turn...and some of these people later blame the state for the case falling apart. However, the way I saw the film I don't believe the authorities LEGALLY had much more they could do about the supremacists...and the film leaves everything in limbo. This could REALLY benefit from a follow-up to know what subsequently occurred.As I mentioned, the people who made the film were great--they were very thorough and did a wonderful job in presenting both sides. It's not 100% satisfying to watch, however, for two reasons. First, in real life things often DON'T work out perfectly...as the film illustrates. And, Second, despite 99.9% of the viewers wanting to see these neo-Nazis die or go to prison forever, legally this wasn't possible due to Constitutionally guaranteed rights...even the right to be an evil, nasty, hateful individual! To me this isn't a bad thing...everyone deserves protection--whether or not they are nice people...though I am sure many will be angered by this. Despite its shortcomings, it does make for an interesting documentary as well as a great civics lesson.

@davannacarter <-- posted a review that is incredulous.The story about Leith ND is captivating, riveting, and true. It isn't trivialized by the number of people in a small town.In fact, it is more impactful that the Neo-Nazis chose such a small town as a target. Predators prey on the weak.Hitler and the 3rd Reich didn't start with an empire, they built one on fear.This movie carefully exposes the narrative with each interview and each scene. Nothing appears to be 'over produced' or fake. You can feel the fear and terror the citizens felt toward the encroachment of fascism. They spoke up, fought back, and won.Give this documentary a chance to show you a perspective on Neo-Fascism.

When I saw the trailer, the reviews, the promos, etc. they really had me hooked with lines like, "Gripping!", "Better than any fiction story", "A horror film come to life", "A town divided by hate", etc. I thought, "Wow. This seems like something I want to see. The town seems small. I'm guessing a few hundred people live there." But partway through the movie I learned the town only has around 20 people and my interest in it sank. I watched the movie with bored eyes as I wanted to finish it but couldn't get over my resentment at being mislead.The filmmakers and the reviewers make this seem like some harrowing story. But, in reality, nobody cares about some white supremacist setting up shop on a few acres of dirt with 24 people in North Dakota. Not even North Dakota people care about this. A place inhabited by 24 people isn't even a town. I'd call that merely a stretch of dirt with 24 people on it. Doesn't a town need at least 100 people? I may sound like a snob, but come on, does anyone really care if some white supremacist sets up shop in a place with two dozen people? If it was more than 100, I'd be interested. But a place with 24 people? Who cares? If you read about it in the newspaper, you'd think, "The New York Times is running an article about some deranged white supremacist setting up shop in the middle of nowhere in North Dakota amongst a so-called town of 24 people in the hopes of creating some booming all-white metropolis? Who cares? Is this news worthy? Let those supremacists set up shop up there. There are no women there. No jobs. Few other white supremacists are gonna make an effort to live there. If they don't freeze their balls off and return to the place they original came from, they'll die of boredom because there's nothing fun to do out there. I have better things to do than care about what happens to some pile of dirt in North Dakota. I'm gonna go watch paint dry."Am I lying when I say that's what people would think if this movie was a news article? The New Yorkers who made this documentary knew people would think this if they read it in an article. So in order to make this boring story interesting, they had to over blow the hype to the extreme. All this hype about how it's fascinating and some sort of interesting story about today's America is garbage. Don't believe the hype. This documentary is nothing more than these bored hipsters' trying their hardest to break into the film industry.

The documentary chronicles the attempted takeover of Leith, North Dakota by white supremacist Craig Cobb. What begins as an 'enemy within' story, turns into something more sinister, as the local townsfolk realise that the man buying their land is trying to create a hub for America's neo- Nazi movement. As Cobb's disciples arrive the locals rise up, and what was at first, a predictable war of nerves, turns into something deeper, questioning the concrete Amendments placed by the US government.......When seeing the documentary on face value alone, it's another perfunctory documentary made to exploit something that is already beyond exploitation, radicals and there abhorrent positive opinions on racism.It follows the same style as most documentaries do, have the good old talking head section, footage from cameras and news reports, acting as a narrative charting the occurring events.And whenever we see the main protagonist, or his 'disciples', there is this weird haunting musical score, like moans in a warehouse, which, if on a compilation of incidental music, would be called 'the epitome of evil'.And of course, the makers of the film are almost godlike in the way they can edit the footage. They alone decide how to make Cobb look during the film. Pure evil, snivelling wreck, pathetic loner, they use all the tricks they can to make him look powerful at first, and slowly lose his grip on reality. But to be fair, it wouldn't take much trickery, the man is a despicable piece if work.But if you took away all these simple tricks of the documentary maker, you can see the bigger picture, not only was Cobb trying to create his own little supremacist village, according to the first amendment, he was doing the majority of it legally.It's a fascinating insight to the legal system, and just how twisting the system ever so slightly can veer one persons judgmental perspective on a stale cult that should have ended over a century ago, can tilt in his favour.It's a scary though that even in today's climate, this sort of frantic hatred is still active and almost imperative to some peoples way of life.It's just desserts that Cobb becomes the 'fugitive' of the piece come the end, and he is the one banished into the middle of nowhere.Powerful stuff for sure, it will anger you, as you would expect it to, but it's a reminder that there are some absolute maniacs about,thinking that what they do is perfectly acceptable.