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The Jacob Burns Film Center hosted a screening and discussion of the documentary "Welcome To Leith" with directors Michael Beach Nichols and Christopher T. Walker.
In the documentary, Craig Cobb, a white supremacist, buys up and land and moves to Leith (population: 24) with the goal of having other white supremacists join him, take over the town government and turn Leith into a white nationalist colony.
The documentary follows the often intense conflict between Cobb and the residents, who want him out. It is later discovered through DNA testing that Cobb is 14 percent black.
Nichols and Walker first heard about the story from a New York Times article when they were looking for a film to make.
"The mayor of Leith was fed up," Nichols said. "He wanted to get his story out. He felt isolated, like he was dealing with the situation by himself."
The directors said they found Cobb to be nice and easy to deal with. Cobb looked at their earlier work and agreed to be interviewed, but on one condition.
"He wanted to make sure we weren't Jewish nor gay," Walker said.
Residents of Leith considered dissolving the town and incorporating themselves into the county if Cobb's attempts appeared successful.
"They didn't want to feel like they were lying down," Nichols said.
Since the movie, Cobb has attempted to buy up land and form white nationalist colonies in other sparsely populated towns without much success.
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