Facing Fear

An Academy Award nominee in 2013 for Best Documentary Short, filmmaker Jason Cohen's Facing Fear tells the complex story of a hate crime victim and the skinhead who nearly murdered him—a pair who united years later to advocate for tolerance and forgiveness. In the early 1980s in Los Angeles, homeless gay teen Matthew Boger was beaten unconscious and left for dead by 14 neo-Nazis led by Tim Zaal, who was then 17. Twenty-six years later the two met by chance at the city's Museum of Tolerance, where Boger was a manager and the now-reformed Zaal was a regular speaker—and they became friends. Here, each man tells his side of the story about the attack, their first meeting as adults, the unlikely bond they formed, and their efforts to educate young people through a monthly co-presentation at the museum, titled “Hate 2 Hope.” Zaal talks about what pulled him into the white supremacist movement as a teenager and why he was motivated to leave it. Boger, whose mother threw him out when he was 13, revisits the street where he was beaten and recalls the attackers' terrifying glee as they high-fived each other while standing over him. An inspirational story, this is highly recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (M. Puffer-Rothenberg)