Homegrown Review: The Call Is From Inside the Country
In his documentary HOMEGROWN, director Michael Premo gives an up-close and personal look at the events of January 6, 2021, and how we got there.
It has been five years since the events at the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021. There have been a number of documentaries that have pulled footage from the event, but director Michael Premo and his crew were there to film one of the participants in his documentary Homegrown, available to stream at homegrown.film on January 6.
For the film, Premo follows three men who were associated with the Proud Boys. Thad Cisneros, who was the Chief of the Salt Lake, Utah Proud Boys chapter, Chris Quaglin, a Proud Boys member and rioter on January 6, 2021, and Randy Ireland, the former leader of the New York Proud Boys chapter. Over the course of two years, Premo and his crew attended rallies and meetings with these men until they finally landed at the US Capitol on the day that the 2020 presidential election results were being certified.
Rather than featuring a lot of sit-down conversations with these participants, Homegrown uses the “cinema verite” style, which is simply observing the characters in their natural surroundings. As such, most of the documentary features the bold language used during various Proud Boy rallies. Genuinely, one of the most shocking things about the movie is how frank the participants are, particularly Chris Quaglin, who proudly engages in several illegal acts during the filming of the movie.
One of the surprising elements that we are privy to is an unlikely friendship between Thad Cisneros and Black Lives Matter activist, Jacarri Kelley. We see this Latino man and Black woman having meaningful conversations over dinner, sharing similar goals regarding police reform. It is fascinating to see how so many aspects of their lives match up while the Proud Boys and BLM are so often seen as being on opposite sides of the political divide.
One of the things that Homegrown does well is seek to understand what motivates these men, without excusing any of their behavior or creating any false equivalencies between the Proud Boys and other activist groups. It also does a great job, in the edit, of including commentary by Chris about how others should be arrested, while at the same time hoping not to be arrested for the things he knows are illegal while doing them. Watching the disconnect in real time is clarifying.
The President and others have framed January 6, 2021, as a “day of love.” Seeing aspects of that day through the eyes of the participants, as told in Homegrown, you can understand how that might be a takeaway. We get to see people who have only known one another online, meeting for the first time. We see people cook steak together and embrace one another as people holding similar worldviews. It is hard to deny that there is love present. But we also see profanity hurled at police, we see tear gas, we see violence. No one is ever just one thing. Homegrown shows us that love and hate can coexist, and it’s up to us to see which one triumphs.
Rating: 4/5
Check out my interview with director Michael Premo about this film!
This review originally appeared in The Dominion Post on January 2, 2025.
Thanks for the heads up on this! Will definitely watch.