Silhouette City (2008)

SILHOUETTE CITY is an immersive journey through the recent history of American apocalypticism. Using archival video, movement propaganda and original investigative material, the film tracks the movement of apocalyptic Christian nationalism and its most extreme adherents from the margins to the mainstream, the military and beyond. In the midst of a sudden loss of power on the political right and a destabilizing economic crisis, an apocalyptic right-wing populism has gathered force. SILHOUETTE CITY is an exploration of the apocalyptic style of reactionary extremism in America by providing a unique window into the foundational ideas, modes of communication and psychological dynamics of apocalyptic movements. If current events are prompting a resurgence of conspiracy culture and anti-government paranoia, the future of the American Right is at the fringes of contemporary apocalyptic Christian nationalism. In the age of a networked Christian Right, movement propaganda has the potential to reach a greater speed and audience than ever before. The film examines the striking ideological and rhetorical similarities between The Covenant, The Sword & The Arm Of The Lord (CSA)-a group that provided the model for militia group activity in the 1990s-and the mainstream Christian Right of today. It reveals how the apocalyptic intensity and rhetoric of final warfare are symptoms of those impulses opposed to cultural openness-and as the formal and conceptual methods of propagandizing their struggle are laid bare-the CSA provides a case study in grassroots response to right-wing apocalyptic impulses. Globalization, rapid worldwide economic expansion and the subsequent decline have rallied religious extremists internationally to join in a fight against a common enemy: modernism and secularism. This sense of urgent desire for radical closure seeks to find its expression-whether it be grassroots organizing, hate speech or direct violence.