Neo-Nazi ideologue and insurance salesman Art Jones was interviewed back in 1986 by a crew of liberal filmmakers who had spent a day shooting a gathering of far-right extremists at a powwow near Flint, Michigan. Last week at the Film Center, he showed up in the front row for the film’s first Chicago screening, expecting to see himself on the big screen. He had to settle for a quick cameo in the cross-burning scene.
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After the screening he stood up to tell the full house at the Blacklight Festival what had been left out. Since his speech had not made the final cut, he took the floor to make up for it. “I was in that film,” he began. “And I am a member of the movement shown, but I don’t want to exterminate anybody. All I want is for the white people to survive. I salute Louis Farrakhan, and I–”
So far no one has, despite Jones’s attempts to run for alderman, mayor, and U.S. congressman. One of his campaign platforms called for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution mandating that “neighborhoods would again be organized by race and culture.” Jones might run for Congress in the next election, even though his 1984 campaign went nowhere: “I don’t want to pick up garbage in the ward; I’d rather take care of the garbage in the country.” He calls Illinois senator Paul Simon “that bow-tied Bolshevik bastard.”
At Sunday brunch in a busy Marquette Park restaurant a few days after the screening, Jones was playing movie reviewer. They Live–a horror thriller–came highly recommended. Blood in the Face got fewer stars.
