LFF 2021: THE NEUTRAL GROUND: The Daily Show-Style Documentary On Confederate Legacy

In 2015, the New Orleans City Council after a lively debate voted to remove Confederate statues that dotted the majority-Black city. Faced with vehement opposition, the city faced an uphill battle to remove the statues, while a political debate grew up around it, both in New Orleans and the country at large. The Neutral Ground explores this opposition and the debate surrounding Confederate statues across the US.

A Daily Show-Style Doc

This documentary deals with the legacy of slavery, the Confederacy, and the importance of historical symbols in a light and humorous way. Director and presenter CJ Hunt, a director on The Daily Show, brings that comedic style, with quickly edited vox pops, quippy voiceovers, and undercutting sarcasm. But alongside the humour, Hunt explains the local issue – of the decision to remove the statues to Confederate leader Robert E. Lee and a monument to the white supremacist “White League” among others – in a concise, entertaining and informative way. In a world of media sensationalism and fake news, clear communication of the situation is a tonic. It reveals the situation’s ridiculousness: in a majority African-American city, how can it be right that slavery-supporting White Supremacist statues populate the public spaces of the descendants of the people the Confederacy fought to keep enslaved?

The amount of information Hunt communicates in 1 hour 22 minutes is impressive. To do this in an engaging and funny way, even more so. We cover the narrative of ‘The Lost Cause’ (where Southerners rewrote the Confederacy cause from fighting for slavery to defending states rights) to the failure of Reconstruction, and the story of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, who in their grief – and anger – after the loss of their husbands, sons and brothers, erected statues to wrest their narrative back from victorious northerners and show the freed slaves who remained boss. This is, for the most part, told excellently.

But the shock of the Confederacy and the slavery they fought to uphold is sometimes dulled by Hunt’s insistence on humour. Viewing a memorial to the 1811 German Coast Uprising – an uprising of over 500 slaves – which depicts the decapitation that those slaves suffered, Hunt isn’t sure whether to try to add humour to offset the horror, resulting in mirth that jars with the severity of the topic.

A Personal and Political Story

While quite rightly not a neutral documentary, it’s also not a documentary just about the statues and the debate surrounding them. It’s Hunt’s story too. Thankfully, the initial worry that the piece may be a part-documentary-part-self-promotion vehicle is quickly quelled in favour of an engaging story about Hunt’s relationship with his own blackness. Speaking with his father, we learn how Hunt suppressed his blackness throughout his childhood and adolescence. While exploring the importance of New Orleans’ statues, alongside this Hunt explores what blackness – and his blackness – means to him, and the different ways it can be viewed and embraced.

His personal viewpoint is often vital. Speaking with Confederate supporters during a Civil War reenactment, he tells them how he feels when he sees the blue-crossed Confederate flag without defensiveness or accusation, which produces an openness in his interlocutors that reveals interesting responses. Hunt’s story, however, while an important one, sometimes detracts from the debate about the statues themselves.

Beyond the general statement, ‘It’s good that these statues are down’, Hunt is reluctant to go any further. It’s the people he interviews who make the suggestions for what else needs to be done, such as renaming streets and schools named after Confederate leaders – but he declines to give his own opinion. As a result, the ending feels abrupt. While Hunt’s arc is completed, the story of the monuments in New Orleans – and the country at large – is left hanging. Perhaps that’s the point.

Enduring Myths

While the temptation to lay a large chunk of the blame of modern-day racism in America at Trump’s door must’ve been tempting (and the former President is rightly not let off the hook completely) Hunt deals with this in a nuanced and historical way. Trump is viewed as an inheritor rather than originator of racist myths and skewed narratives forged by a media and culture shot-through with white supremacy. Hunt shows sympathy for people who have been fed lies and so believe them, without showing sympathy for their actions, and explores how and why culture promotes racist narratives. This documentary does a fantastic job of countering the racist myths and narratives armed with the facts and, for good measure, wit.

Drawing on his Daily Show experience, Hunt expertly conveys detailed information sharply, exploring the important topic of the legacy of slavery – and his own Blackness – in a thoughtful and engaging way.

The Neutral Ground screened at the 2021 London Film Festival.

Watch The Neutral Ground