How Can We Heal from Hate? A Dialogue in the Exhibition, Speaking Volumes | Transforming Hate
Matt O’Connor
Helena, Montana
How Can We Heal from Hate? A Dialogue in the Exhibition, Speaking Volumes | Transforming Hate, 2010
Film
A rare opportunity for transformation arose in Montana in 2004. A defecting leader of The Creativity Movement –one of the most virulent white supremacist hate groups in the nation –presented the Montana Human Rights Network with 4,000 volumes of their “bibles,” books promoting extreme anti-Semitic, anti-Christian, racist ideologies.
In partnership with the Network, the Holter Museum of Art in Helena, Montana, invited artists across the country to respond to, integrate, or transform the books in provocative ways. This short film by Matt O’Connor explores ideas stimulated by the artistswho responded to and transformed this difficult material into art. The Speaking Volumes: Transforming Hateexhibition opened in 2008 at the Holter Museum of Art then toured the state for two years.
In the film, high school students, an artist, a human rights researcher, and the exhibition curator engage in civic dialogue about how we respond to discrimination, racism, and prejudice through the power of creative expression and honest conversation.
Viewed as a conversation-starter, the film encourages people to communicate their own ideas, perhaps through dialogue or artistic creation. In the words of W.E.B. Du Bois, “Begin with art, because art tries to take us outside ourselves. It is a matter of trying to create an atmosphere and context, so conversation can flow back and forth, and we can be influenced by each other.”
Bio
Matt O’Connor is a documentary filmmaker and producer whose films have been screened internationally. He graduated from Montana State University with majors in film and photography.