“White With Fear,” a new political documentary from Emmy Award-winning director Andrew Goldberg examining the decades-long conservative strategy of stoking racial division in the U.S., is set to have its world premiere at the Chelsea Film Festival in New York City on Oct. 19.
The documentary features politicians, insiders, scholars and journalists who span the political spectrum, from Hillary Clinton to former Donald Trump campaign CEO and Chief of Staff Steve Bannon.
The film features political insiders including Sally Bradshaw, former senior advisor to Jeb Bush and co-author of the GOP “Autopsy”; Tim Miller, former Jeb Bush for President communications director and host of “The Bulwark” podcast; Stuart Stevens, former Romney for President 2012 campaign strategist and co-founder of The Lincoln Project; Rick Gates, a former Trump campaign strategist; and Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Democratic congressman from Maryland.
“Told by the operatives in the rooms where it happened, ‘White With Fear’ is an explosive deep dive into the decades-long quest by America’s conservative political machine to amass power by exploiting racial fault lines and stoking narratives of White victimization,” the film’s official logline reads.
Other subjects include Ian Haney López, author of “Dog Whistle Politics” and Professor of Public Law at Berkeley; Rick Perlstein, author of “Nixonland”; Leah Wright Rigueur, author, pundit and Professor of Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School; Carol Anderson, author of “White Rage” and Professor African American Studies at Emory University; and Wajahat Ali, author of “Go Back To Where You Came From…” and co-host of the “Democracy-ish” podcast.
“White With Fear’s greatest strength lies in its first-person access to politicians, operatives, journalists, and others who share their personal experiences from within these power structures,” Goldberg said in a statement.
“White With Fear” is written, produced and directed by Goldberg, who has covered racism, antisemitism and bigotry in his 30 years as an investigative journalist tackling social issues and aiming a critical lens at institutional power. He is known for his work on documentaries including “Out in America,” “The Armenian Genocide” and “Viral: Antisemitism in Four Mutations.”
In his latest documentary, Goldberg shows how stereotypes are weaponized by governments and power structures, pulling back the curtain on never-before-heard strategies shared by Republicans, revealing tactics that have shaped their political playbook for decades.
“White With Fear” is also produced and edited by Diana Robinson, who was raised in a conservative religious family and went on to embark on a journalism career in which she covered multiple presidential campaigns from swing state Pennsylvania, from the rise of the Tea Party amid backlash to former President Barack Obama, to the post-industrial economic depression that drove voters toward Trumpism.
The film was co-produced by Eric Ward, who is known for spending his early career undercover in White supremacist groups, posing as a Black supremacist. After decades working on anti-extremism, he is now the Executive Vice President of Race Forward and is the only American recipient of the Civil Courage Prize.
“White With Fear” will premiere at the Chelsea Film Festival Saturday, Oct. 19, at 2:15 PM at Regal 14th Street. The film will then have a theatrical run at the Cinema Village in New York City starting on Oct. 25, with the opening night followed by a Q&A panel. Then it will be screened at the St. Louis International Film Festival in November.
