Homegrown
- Dr. Lloyd
- 8 hours ago
- 3 min read
A Documentary Film of the January 6, 2021 storming of the US Capital (featuring the Proud Boys)
Reviewed by Lloyd I Sederer MD
On January 6, 2021, wielding an army’s worth of guns and other deadly arms, an unhinged mob of tens of thousands stormed the US Capital intent on overthrowing the results of 2020 US Presidential election. The insurrection, carefully planned for months, drew malcontents from throughout the United States. Their aim was to declare Donald Trump the 46th President of the United States, which he falsely asserted “was fixed”. Trump watched the deadly riot on TV: approximately 140 law enforcement officers were injured (according to the Department of Justice), 5 people were killed and 4 subsequently took their lives. He took no action to stop it and held to his claim that the Presidency had been stolen from him.
One small but dominant group of rioters called themselves “The Proud Boys”. Homegrown portrays three of the “boys”, one who was jailed for four years until pardoned (among 1500 other convicted rioters) by the now sitting President Trump. By his release, his wife had divorced him, moved away, and he was in prison when his son was born.
Homegrown, a documentary film of the riot from its planning to execution and after, was released in January 2026, 5 years later after the criminal storming of the US Capital. As a viewer, you may be apt to consider the film’s display of national division, conspiracy, lethal hatred, lying, and armed attack on the US Capital unimaginable. But the evidence is here to see in this alarming account of our country gone wild.
Identity, brotherhood, belonging, unity, and purpose, together, are combustible ingredients that can be tightly packed and fashioned into the workings of a human organization, one in this case, primed for malfeasance, eager to believe duplicitous, self-serving leaders, and armed to overthrow the governance of their country. In the USA, one such group calls itself “The Proud Boys”, self-made soldiers who have swallowed the lying chant of Donald Trump.
Homegrown, is a documentary filmed, directed, and produced by Michael Premo, whose Award-winning, journalistic and cinematographic skills portray a country (the USA) collapsing into the deadly hell of insurrection.
When Trump refused to accept he had lost the 2020 Presidential election, the ‘Boys” (and many other rioters) were prepared. They had stocked high caliber guns, armor, gas masks, buses, and Weber Kettles with ice chests of steaks and hot dogs to furnish their plans to storm the barricades of the US Capital. Their self-appointed mission, as we see in this film, is characterized by three ardent ‘Boys’ who believed Trump’s lies and meant to bring to power, unwittingly, one of the most devious and dangerous of men. Only later would they find out the cost to them, their families, and the country they thought they were saving.
Their plans become very alive when they disembark their buses, backpacks full of harm, unite with other “patriots” to their cause, and funnel onto the narrowing Capital steps. Homegrown is masterfully disquieting as it draws we views into the rage, chaos, and ruin that ensues.
As we know, the Proud Boys (and other “patriots”) lost more than they could imagine, but less than most could admit. A Presidential Prison Pardon does little to reunite families, fathers with their young children, or create opportunities for work and education. Four years in prison is nothing to be proud of if you are looking for a job and trying to house and feed your family, as many of those pardoned are likely to encounter.
The tragic irony for the rioters is that five years since the insurrection, the “patriots” and “Proud Boys” have an increasingly mentally compromised President. Trump’s growing pile of “mistakes” is destroying the functioning government of our democracy. It is also decimating our economy, while adding to a growing loss of global safety and economic enterprise that will wash onto the shores of the USA.
When might a life made more unaffordable in the US by all but the “1%” produce further riots and add momentum to the chaos underway in the USA? Our national implosion, furiously led by the 47th US President, is not likely to place any garlands at the feet of the perpetrators he mobilizes, those who follow the path set by his lies and enacted by the criminals of January 6?
Homegrown is a remarkable portrayal of what could be the early chapter of so much we hold dear. Take a good look at this film and you will witness what already is in peril to what has been achieved towards a good life in the USA.
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Lloyd I Sederer, MD is a psychiatrist, public health doctor, and non-fiction writer.