Where to Watch THE BEST OF ENEMIES
What happens when two people who have every reason to hate each other are forced to sit down and work together?
The Best of Enemies tells the true story of Ann Atwater, an outspoken civil rights activist, and C.P. Ellis, a local Ku Klux Klan leader in Durham, North Carolina. In the racially charged summer of 1971, the two find themselves on opposite sides of a community debate over school desegregation.
But when they’re asked to co-chair the summit, something neither expects begins to happen. As they confront difficult questions about their community and one another, their relationship takes an extraordinary turn.
Watch The Best of Enemies now on Angel.
Two Enemies. One Table.
Ann Atwater and C.P. Ellis could hardly seem more different.
Atwater is a passionate advocate for civil rights. Ellis is a local Klan leader who has spent years on the other side of the racial divide. Yet both are brought into the same room to help lead a community summit addressing the desegregation of Durham’s schools.
The assignment forces them to do something that can be difficult even under the best circumstances: listen to someone they fundamentally disagree with.
What begins as a battle between opposing sides gradually becomes something neither person expected.
A Conversation That Changes Everything
The community summit puts Atwater and Ellis in a position where they have to confront more than the issues dividing their city. They also have to confront their assumptions about each other.
As the debate unfolds, surprising revelations begin to change the way they see one another—and themselves.
Their story offers a powerful reminder that meaningful change can begin in unexpected places. Sometimes it starts with simply being willing to sit across the table from someone you thought you could never understand.
A True Story of Change
What makes The Best of Enemies especially compelling is that this unlikely relationship really happened.
The events of that summer in Durham became part of a remarkable story of friendship, courage, and transformation. The film doesn’t shy away from the difficult history surrounding school desegregation and racial division, but it also shows what can happen when people are willing to challenge deeply held beliefs.
One Angel Guild member called it a “tough topic that needs to be seen,” noting that the story represents an important part of American history. Another praised the film as a reminder that people can change and that there is hope even “in the ugliest times.”
What Can Change When We Listen?
The Best of Enemies is ultimately a story about people.
It asks what happens when we stop seeing someone simply as an opponent and begin to see the person sitting across from us. For Atwater and Ellis, that shift changes their relationship—and leaves an impact far beyond the room where their community debate took place.
The story also carries a lasting message about human dignity. As one viewer put it, the film offers an important reminder that “God created us all” and that every person deserves to be treated with dignity.
Watch The Best of Enemies on Angel
Based on the remarkable true story of Ann Atwater and C.P. Ellis, The Best of Enemies explores one of the most unexpected relationships to emerge from a difficult chapter in American history.
Watch The Best of Enemies now on Angel.
© 2026 Lions Gate Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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