Welcome to Leith is a documentary, but it might as well be a thriller. Directors Michael Beach Nichols and Christopher K. Walker shoot the film with harrowing, slowly moving B-roll, an ominous score, and a structure designed like a cliffhanger, home-invasion movie.
The story at the center of Welcome to Leith is so surreal that it’s hard to believe you’re watching a documentary. When Craig Cobb first moved to the minuscule town of Leith, North Dakota – population 24 – residents thought he was just an unassuming old man who enjoyed his privacy. In reality, he was a neo-Nazi planning to buy up parcels of land and turn the town into a refuge for white supremacists. Welcome to Leith packages this strange tale in the form of a riveting war film, with the Leith residents battling against Cobb in an attempt to retake their formerly serene hamlet.
Originating in Brooklyn, flexing, or a style of freeform street dance, is the subject matter behind Deidre Schoo and Michael Beach Nichol’s solid documentary, Flex Is Kings. Characterized by rhythmic contortionist movements combined with waving, tutting and gliding; the film is about so much more than the subject matter at hand.