Power plant smokestacks above a coal rail yard in a green Appalachian valley

Raised by Wolves

The Film

Interviews, scenes and voices from the documentary

Trailer

From the film

In their words

What happened in Christchurch, New Zealand, it was like a limb in my body just ached…I died that day with my brothers and sisters who died in the masjid that day. And I’m sure many other people, even if you’re not even Muslim, just being a human being and knowing that pain. You had to feel something.
Hawa Diawara, community member, activist for Black Americans and Muslim youth in Appalachia

I just do not know how people can ring one more dollar of suffering out of vulnerable people. When you have a community that’s so ingrained in extraction, extraction without fair compensation, where nobody owns a thing; you get paid, when you get sick they pay you off, when you die they pay your widow, and it’s never, ever, ever enough. But that’s what’s happening.
Rachel Fetty, community member, parent, child advocate

(Parent) “What do you see the most of?” (Child) “Homophobic, anti-Muslim”
(Parent) “Would you ever report a page?” (Child) “No, because there isn’t any point…Instagram isn’t going to take their time to look, so there’s no point.”
(Parent) “What do you think would be helpful?” (Child) “This.”

White supremacists have identified gaming as a way to get through to younger kids. So if a parent peeks in their kid’s bedroom, and they see that they’re playing video games with a headset on, they don’t think anything of it because that’s not out of the norm. Unbeknownst to the parents, there’s a lot more nefarious things that are percolating under the surface.
Colin Clark, The Soufan Center

I think when you hand over a generation to be raised by media, especially the kind of media system where the business model is to keep you hooked, and the most effective hook is this extreme content, you have real questions about our future. I mean, you’re handing over a whole generation to be raised by wolves.
Heather Chaplin, media scholar

Interviews

Featuring experts and community members in Appalachia

Raised by Wolves weaves together insights from experts — in adolescent development, masculinity and cultural identity, far right extremism and the role of technology platforms in weaponizing hate — with the stories of Appalachians navigating a crisis of hate in online and real world communities.

Jessica Acee

Educator and co-author of Confronting White Nationalism in Schools from Western States Center in Portland, Oregon

Saba Ashfaq

Community member, parent, public health research and outreach director for The Rural Digital Youth Resiliency Project

Jason Blazakis

Director at the Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism, Middlebury Institute of International Studies

Caleb Cain

Appalachian, former ‘alt-right’ extremist, currently studying misinformation, the far right, cults and terrorism

Heather Chaplin

Journalist, author and media critic on dis/misinformation, director of Journalism + Design at the New School, NYC

Colin Clarke

Educator, political scientist and researcher on extremism at the Institute for Politics and Strategy at Carnegie Mellon University

Chloe Cooper

Investigative journalist and research analyst at Political Research Associates

Hawa Diawara

Community member, Tedx speaker, and activist for Black Americans and Muslim youth in Appalachia

Michelle Ferrier

Founder of TrollBusters.com and scholar of new media technologies, digital identity and online abuse

Rachel Fetty

Community member, parent and attorney in family law and child advocacy in Appalachia

Rebecca Lewis

Social scientist and researcher on political subcultures, media manipulation, disinformation, and principle author of Data and Society’s report Alternative Influence: Broadcasting the Reactionary Right on YouTube

Thomas McBee

Thomas Page McBee is an author, film and TV writer, reporter on gender and culture. His award-winning memoir, Man Alive, was named a best book of the year, and his recent book, Amateur, explores masculinity’s ties to violence

Cynthia Miller-Idriss

Author and scholar of far-right extremism, director of the Polarization and Extremism Research & Innovation Lab at American University in Washington, D.C.

Alex Newhouse

Researcher, Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism at Middlebury Institute, specializing in white supremacy and the Internet and far-right extremism on gaming platforms

Niobe Way

Professor of Developmental Psychology at New York University researching the intersection of cultural ideologies and child social and emotional development

Scenes

Inside the story

A teenager in a hooded jacket sits on a bed in a dim room

The Film

The Film

In their words