The Best of Enemies (2019)

The racially divided town of Durham, NC has two strong community leaders: Ann Atwater, champion of the black population, and CP Ellis, president of the Klan's local chapter. When there's a fire at the black school, the city government decides to hold a 2-week summit in order to put the responsibility on the residents themselves as to what to do about it: integrate or keep education separated by race.

I liked this for what it is -- a history lesson that the whole family can watch -- but disliked it for the same reason. It's a toothless telling of a time that probably had quite a few more incidents of pressure and fear than we're shown. Yes, the n-word is prevalent, but it could've been felt with more impact.

Gary and I have interest in the America in One Room experiment and the summit ("charrette") in the film reminded us of that. It seems that simply getting people out of their echo chambers and into the same room with people of differing opinions can truly change minds. Once people work together and truly listen to each other, they cease to be "other," and that's powerful.

B-