The Westminster College Peace Studies Program, in connection with Pittsburgh-based Classrooms without Borders, will sponsor a film screening of “The Cure for Hate: Bearing Witness to Auschwitz,” a look at Tony MacAleer’s journey from the neo-Nazi movement to atonement, at 3:15 p.m. Wednesday, April 2, in Room 101, Hoyt Science Center.

A discussion will follow with director Peter Hutchison and MacAleer, film subject, former Skinhead and Holocaust denier and author of the book, “the Cure for Hate.”

First a book and now a film, “The Cure for Hate” documents McAleer’s personal journey of atonement while also exploring the conditions that allowed for the rise of fascism in 1930s Europe. The film also sheds a unique light on how people get into, and out of, violent extremist groups, serving as a cautionary tale about the dangers in allowing hate to go unchecked.

MacAleer spent 15 years in the white supremacist and neo-Nazi movement. He was instrumental in ushering in the use of the internet as a means to disseminate white supremacist propaganda. He was brought before the Canadian Human Rights Commission for his offenses, and after over 1,000 hours of individual and group counseling to understand his own process, MacAleer was instrumental in helping to create Life After Hate, an organization that supports those considering exiting hate groups.

Hutchison is an award-winning filmmaker, a New York Times-bestselling author, educator and activist. His films include “Requiem for the American Dream: Noam Chomsky” and “The Principles of Concentration of Wealth and Power.” The more recent “Healing From Hate: Battle for the Soul of a Nation” is an exploration of hate group activity as seen through the lens of masculinity. “Devil Put the Coal in the Ground,” a holistic look at the ravages of extractive industry and corporate power in West Virginia, is currently in festival release, having garnered five Best Documentary Feature Awards.

For more information about Westminster’s Peace Studies Program, click here.

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