Filmmaker Steffen Hou (left) talks with Jasen Barker (right) in the documentary “Face of Hate” which details Barker’s journey away from white supremacy. Submitted photo
An anti-extremist group plans to host the U.S. theater premier of a documentary next month detailing the journey out of white supremacy of a former KKK leader and Nazi sympathizer from Livingston County.
‘ Face of Hate ’ tells the story of Jasen Barker, who made headlines when he and a cousin were sentenced to prison after assaulting a Black Michigan State Police trooper at a bar in Brighton in 2001. Over the course of the film, Barker’s path takes him deeper into white supremacy, including becoming a leader with a Kentucky-based Ku Klux Klan group, taking on pro-Nazi ideology and eventually receiving a second prison term for multiple firearm offenses related to illegally possessing guns and explosives.
Slowly, however, Barker begins to explore his overt racist ideology and question its origins, eventually seeking redemption and forgiveness from his children after accepting the pain his white supremacy had caused.