LOS ANGELES - Alexandre Amiel was alarmed when his 11-year-old son asked the day after the January 2015 attacks on Charlie Hebdo magazine and a Jewish supermarket in Paris: "Why do they hate us?"

The veteran filmmaker's answer is an unflinching exploration of racism in France at a time when the nationalist politics of presidential candidate Marine Le Pen have become part of the political mainstream, and racially-motivated attacks are on the rise.

Why Do They Hate Us?, which gets its US premiere on Sunday as part of the Colcoa festival of French film in Los Angeles, is a documentary with a difference.