In July 2020, Rob Bliss, a young, white journalist, posted a video of what happened when he held up a ‘Black Lives Matter’ sign in Harrison, Arkansas, a place that has a reputation as the most racist town in America. It went viral, attracting 12 million views.
What Bliss did next was remarkable. Over 1500 miles, 2 months, 25 miles a day, he set out to walk the length of the American South. Across rural, largely forgotten towns, Bliss invites those he meets to“walk with me, for Black Lives Matter”. His goal is simple: to understand why standing up for black lives has provoked such rage in America among poor, rural whites. His rationale: because he can. “It’s not hard for me to be in those spaces,” Bliss says. “I can code switch into them. I look the part. I look like a trucker. I’m going into those spaces, so that you don’t have to.”
The results are anything but simple. Osun presents White Man Walking a feature-length film following one man’s journey on foot through the majestic landscape of the southern United states, an intimate encounter with places that look, feel, and are forgotten, and most of all, a unique attempt to understand, and even bridge the divide. “I don’t think people realise how absurd and dystopian and crazy and emotional this country is,” Bliss says. “It’s so jarringly personal. There isn’t anything else like that out there. It’s like nothing you’ve ever seen before.”
