The Neutral Ground, 2021.
Co-written and directed by CJ Hunt.
SYNOPSIS:
In December 2015, the New Orleans City Council voted to remove four Confederate monuments from public grounds. A forceful group of critics protested the decision, and fearing retaliation, no crew would agree to remove the statues.
Comedy has historically proven to be a sturdy vessel through which to dissect serious subjects, allowing those listening to drop their defenses and entertain the spice with a sprinkle of sugar. Such forms the basis for this serio-playful documentary from comedian and The Daily Show producer CJ Hunt.
Hunt’s film is centered around the New Orleans City Council’s highly contentious 2015 ruling to remove four Confederate monuments in an attempt to redress the city’s reverence of its own racist past. The belief is that monuments to figures such as Confederate General Robert E. Lee are better placed in museums rather than serving as towering obelisks of worship in public spaces.
As a thigh-slapping opening montage confirms, the reaction from angry whites is predictably furious, the usual suspects calling it a kneejerk attempt to erase America’s past, amid such otherworldly claims as “the Civil War wasn’t about slavery,” “I don’t see skin colour,” and the statues are nothing more than “inanimate objects” with no wider context. And as practical efforts are made to topple the monuments, the city grapples with how to do it when crane operators left-and-right are being intimidated into turning the job down.
At its broadest level, The Neutral Ground broaches how we – meaning white people – remember unsavoury aspects of our collective history, and why so few whites are willing to freely talk about America’s white supremacist past of which most are, directly or not, benefactors.
With witty clarity, Hunt outlines the case for removing the statues while digging deep into America’s history of racism that’s still codified into even its street signs today, and also how New Orleans, notably once the largest slave market in the U.S., has lionised emblems of subjugation while burying the stories of Black American slaves.
If it’d be easy for a figure like Hunt to take pot-shots at low-hanging fruit, he instead makes a fair effort to reach across the table and create a dialogue with those who believe the statues should remain. This isn’t to say that those conversations are always rooted in good faith, but one card-carrying Confederate enthusiast at least asks Hunt to consider the grief of the Confederacy, of the wives and children left bereft by the outcome of the Civil War.
It’s an interesting perspective which neither Hunt nor general audiences are likely to have much considered; no matter the horrors of slavery and the grossness of the Confederacy, the spiritual carnage on both sides was immense. This dovetails into a fascinating exploration of the means through which white southerners concocted a prevailing, false post-war narrative – the Lost Cause of the Confederacy – to paint the losing side as tragic heroes rather than defeated racists.
This narrative has pervaded into history books and educational institutions throughout the U.S., in turn undermining the Black prosperity and integration which, for a brief flicker, appeared to emerge in the Civil War’s wake. This triumphant myth-making effectively helped hand power back to former Confederates, who in an ultimate attempt to stake their claim built monuments which are virulently defended for the sake of exposing the fragile white myth of Confederate heroism.
Assuredly heavy and potentially detail-dense though this all is, Black-Filipino director-subject Hunt is an extremely affable guide, having decided to make the film after a satirical YouTube video he produced about the monuments went viral. Hunt’s just-acerbic-enough narration offers stingingly funny insight into the experiences of living in America as a Black man while surrounded by bronzed reminders of the country’s hateful past.
In a fashion that proves somewhat reminiscent of a Borat skit, Hunt also goes against his producer’s advice and plays along in a Confederate Civil War re-enactment, leading to a toe-curling exchange with several cordial-enough Confederacy enthusiasts who nevertheless believe slavery to be “bullshit.” Bravely, Hunt also later embeds himself with right-wing protestors attempting to protect the aforementioned monuments, granting them a forum to bring their own pig ignorance to the fore.
While the doc is often presented with its tongue poking firmly in its cheek, Hunt also knows when to dial back the cutting quips, particularly when documenting his presence at the 2017 neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville. It becomes clear later in the film just how much of a self-discovering journey the very act of making the film is for Hunt, who finds tremendous catharsis in expanding his own consciousness re: his place in the United States.
The New Orleans monuments eventually came down – the cranes controlled by men wearing bulletproof vests, terrifyingly – and plaques were also placed around the city to ensure that cocktail-chugging tourists can’t entirely ignore its less-savoury history. But even with statues emblematic of racism and slavery being dismounted with a greater incidence in recent years – an issue again re-ignited by last year’s murder of George Floyd – the question becomes, what next? Moreover, how do Black people and white allies keep this momentum going?
It’s not a question Hunt’s film has an easy answer for, but suggests it may lie in encouraging empathy in every facet of public life. Many are simply too far indoctrinated to be reachable, to let go of their cherished “history” and their egos, but a wider reconsideration of how we educate our children about America’s past can help restore greater truth, in all of its ugliness, to the American story.
Filmmaker-subject CJ Hunt cuts to the heart of a pressing social issue with devastating irreverence in this nimble, lightning-paced 82-minute documentary.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Shaun Munro – Follow me on Twitter for more film rambling.
