IF YOU GO: "Not In Our Town" documentary filmmaker Patrice O'Neill speaks 3 p.m. Wednesday at the Charleston Area Alliance, 1116 Smith St., and 7 p.m. at the YWCA of Charleston, 1114 Quarrier St. Parking available next to YWCA. Free. For more info, visit ywcacharleston.org.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Filmmaker Patrice O'Neill never intended to help jumpstart a national movement. A documentary was her aim when she and a handful of colleagues in the non-profit media company, The Working Group, set off for Billings, Mont., in 1995.

The award-winning PBS documentary that resulted, www.pbs.org/niot" target="_blank">"Not In Our Town," portrayed how the town's citizens tackled head on a series of escalating hate crimes against an African-American church, a Jewish cemetery and a Native American woman's home.

"'Not In Our Town' is this story that really changed what we do," said O'Neill in advance of free appearances at 3 p.m. Wednesday at the Charleston Area Alliance and 7 p.m. at the YWCA. She'll discuss how communities can creatively cope with intolerance and will screen short features from the new NIOT.org site, whose aim is to connect ordinary citizens nationwide trying to foster more inclusive towns.

In Billings, the culminating episode came when a brick came crashing through a Jewish family's front window where a 6-year-old boy had put up a Hanukkah menorah. In support of their Jewish neighbors, 10,000 people in Billings, many using a paper menorah printed for the purpose inside the local paper, put menorahs in their windows that holiday season.

When skinheads started going to African-American churches to intimidate the congregation, members of other congregations sent members there to make the churchgoers feel more secure.

Around the country, towns began claiming the documentary's mantra  -- "Not in our town" -- in rejecting violence spurred by gender, race and sexual orientation, said O'Neill in a phone interview before her Charleston visit.

The Working Group shifted its focus to engage communities nationwide. It began to encourage town-hall meetings about the local effects of intolerance, to document what was working and to help communities creatively address conditions that allow hate crimes to fester or go unanswered.

"It's not just the people who are physically harmed, it's the fear and terror that go with the crime," O'Neill said. "When you have a crime like this, it has this ripple effect that may not be apparent if you're not a potential victim of a hate crime. But it certainly affects way more people than just the victim and the victim's family."

IF YOU GO: "Not In Our Town" documentary filmmaker Patrice O'Neill speaks 3 p.m. Wednesday at the Charleston Area Alliance, 1116 Smith St., and 7 p.m. at the YWCA of Charleston, 1114 Quarrier St. Parking available next to YWCA. Free. For more info, visit ywcacharleston.org.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Filmmaker Patrice O'Neill never intended to help jumpstart a national movement. A documentary was her aim when she and a handful of colleagues in the non-profit media company, The Working Group, set off for Billings, Mont., in 1995.

The award-winning PBS documentary that resulted, www.pbs.org/niot" target="_blank">"Not In Our Town," portrayed how the town's citizens tackled head on a series of escalating hate crimes against an African-American church, a Jewish cemetery and a Native American woman's home.

"'Not In Our Town' is this story that really changed what we do," said O'Neill in advance of free appearances at 3 p.m. Wednesday at the Charleston Area Alliance and 7 p.m. at the YWCA. She'll discuss how communities can creatively cope with intolerance and will screen short features from the new NIOT.org site, whose aim is to connect ordinary citizens nationwide trying to foster more inclusive towns.

In Billings, the culminating episode came when a brick came crashing through a Jewish family's front window where a 6-year-old boy had put up a Hanukkah menorah. In support of their Jewish neighbors, 10,000 people in Billings, many using a paper menorah printed for the purpose inside the local paper, put menorahs in their windows that holiday season.

When skinheads started going to African-American churches to intimidate the congregation, members of other congregations sent members there to make the churchgoers feel more secure.

Around the country, towns began claiming the documentary's mantra  -- "Not in our town" -- in rejecting violence spurred by gender, race and sexual orientation, said O'Neill in a phone interview before her Charleston visit.

The Working Group shifted its focus to engage communities nationwide. It began to encourage town-hall meetings about the local effects of intolerance, to document what was working and to help communities creatively address conditions that allow hate crimes to fester or go unanswered.

"It's not just the people who are physically harmed, it's the fear and terror that go with the crime," O'Neill said. "When you have a crime like this, it has this ripple effect that may not be apparent if you're not a potential victim of a hate crime. But it certainly affects way more people than just the victim and the victim's family."

You may think hate crimes happen to someone else, she added. "But it tears at the social fabric of the community."

West Virginians have "have done an amazing job at engaging in anti-hate activities," O'Neill said. The new NIOT.org can strengthen such efforts in the Mountain State, she said.

"We want to connect them to a larger network of people who are engaging in this, so we can learn from people in West Virginia and they can learn from us and share knowledge."

Her visit comes on the heels of President Obama fulfilling a campaign pledge and signing into law on Oct. 22 the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act. The bill is named after a Laramie, Wyo., man tortured and killed because he was perceived to be gay and an African-American man killed in Jasper, Texas, by white supremacists who dragged him to death behind a truck.

The bill expands federal hate crime law to include crimes motivated by a victim's actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability.

"It's a really important step," O'Neill said. "But it's only one step. The laws are crucial, but the community action that backs it up is what's really going to make a difference."

O'Neill's Charleston appearances are co-sponsored by: YWCA of Charleston; OneKanawha; the West Virginia Hate Crime Task Force; Charleston Area Alliance; West Virginia Chapter of the NAACP; ACLU of West Virginia; WVFree; Create West Virginia; Covenant House; Charleston Stop the Hate Committee; Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Charleston; National Association of Social Workers, West Virginia Chapter; and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of West Virginia.

Reach Douglas Imbrogno at doug...@cnpapers.com">doug...@cnpapers.com or 304-348-3017.