SXSW will debut doco about a black man's attempts to befriend the KKK

Blues musician Darly Davis meets white supremacists in an attempt to answer the question, "how can you hate me if you don't know me?"

Source: NBC

SXSW will premiere Accidental Courtesy: Daryl Davis, Race and America this weekend, a documentary that follows a blues musician as he travels across America and attempts to befriend white supremacists.

Filmed over two years, the Matt Ornstein doco follows Davis as he attempts to answer a lifelong question: "How can you hate me if you don't know me?"

Davis meets with neo-Nazis and members of the KKK in a one-on-one setting in an attempt to get them to see their common humanity.

He's had success in his method. What started as a hobby over 20 years ago has become a passion project that has seen around 25 white supremacists renounce their beliefs, handing over their Klan robes to Davis as a peace offering.

But the project hasn't been without its risks. Ornstein recalls filming interactions between Davis and white supremacists where "the hair stood up on the back of [his] neck", and he did not film Davis' wife at all, out of "fears for her safety" in an interview with MSNBC.

Ornstein says that for Davis, the benefits of getting white supremacists to "realise the error of their ways" outweighs the threat of violence.

However, not everyone agrees with Davis' approach. In the documentary, Davis also speaks with academics and civil rights activists who believe that his methods aren't effective. As Black Lives Matter activist Kwame Rose says in the documentary, "infiltrating the Klan ain't freeing your people."

Ornstein says that while their approaches may differ, their goal is not so different.

"Both sides do have valid points on the subject of course, and they're both doing their best to help out. I think Daryl ultimately has only helped the people you see in the movie and that's a substantial accomplishment, and more than a lot of people including myself can say," Ornstein told MSNBC.

With Donald Trump refusing to disassociate himself from the KKK recently, Ornstein calls the documentary's SXSW release "timely, unfortunately" and says he hopes it will "spur discussion" about combating racial prejudice.