Among those in the film are David Isteev, who leads the rescue missions through the Russian LGBT Network and Olga Baranova, director of the Moscow Community Center for LGBT+ Initiatives. Thanks to a toxic brew of nationalistic fervor, Putins gay propaganda law and some good old-fashioned religious fundamentalism, homosexuals have been scapegoated as disgraces only blood can cleanse, in many cases becoming victims of honor-killings by their own families. When he was captured on the streets of Grozny, he had been selling balloon art. (All refugees are assigned pseudonyms, such as Grisha and Anya.) But the greater part of the action of Welcome to Chechnya was caught on the move, with a disturbingly convincing tension, as the film followed various strands as they developed, unpredictably, in real time (its a considerable achievement, not least in editing, to make such an approach convincing rather than contrived). In another, a woman is attacked by a relative who it's implied but not shown proceeds to bludgeon her to death. Here is an ongoing crime against humanity that has not generated the outrage that it deserves, said France, who earned an Oscar nomination for How to Survive a Plague, his 2012 directing debut about AIDS activists in the early days of the epidemic. Two of these operations frame the narrative of Welcome to Chechnya: the exfiltration of a 21-year-old woman with the pseudonym Anya, whose uncle learned she is lesbian and threatened to expose her . Ghastly. It comes midway through the HBO documentary that premieres June 30, so weve already met the Russian LGBT activists who help Chechen gays and lesbians flee the republics anti-gay purge. But also, theyre inspiring stories, I think., (How to Survive a Plague is streaming on Amazon Prime; The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson is streaming on Netflix.). (Photo courtesy of Igor Myakotin/Welcome to Chechnya) Maxim Lapunov at the Sundance Film Festival. Homosexuality and gender nonconformity have long been frowned upon in Chechen society. Did the Utah Legislature do enough to save the Great Salt Lake? "Welcome to Chechnya" es un urgente documental que destaca a valientes activistas rescatando a personas gay del exterminio en Chechenia. Chechnya's leader Ramzan Kadyrov is a Putin stooge straight out of central casting, coyly egging on the atrocities in his ridiculous weightlifter shirt. Im still in contact with all those people. They were sent over WhatsApp groups up the chain of command, so that Ramzan Kadyrov would know that his orders are being carried out., And when you saw the footage, I realized that I wanted to take that away from them, and turn their trophies into evidence, he continued. From acclaimed journalist and Oscar (R)-nominated director David France (How to Survive a Plague) comes this searing documentary about a group of brave activists risking their lives to confront the ongoing anti-LGBTQ campaign in the Russian republic of Chechnya--which has led to the torture and disappearance of untold numbers of people. And that hasnt changed since the documentary was completed. How would he shield the identity of at-risk gay and lesbian Chechens fleeing the region via a network of safe houses, while also preserving their emotions, their affections and expressions? The mysterious disappearance of gay Chechen singer Zelim Bakaev after a visit to Grozny for his sister's wedding in August 2017[7] also receives a brief mention in the film. I want people to be invested in it. These people are not professional movers: they are former journalists and photographers, artists, academicsnone of whom had experience with helping people covertly escape oppressive regimes, until they did. Be a witness. He wants you to see them. I said Yes, okay! and continued shooting after a moment. Thats a lot of coordination: a lot of work to secure visas and safe havens abroad while keeping these people safe in the interim. HBO Max Isteev had dropped it there on his way out; according to plan, he and the backup team left right before Anyas arrival. The moment is extremely tense. David France, left, and the face-capture producer Johnny Han watch a volunteer in the studio. Even Facebook, not known for its strict policing of content, pledged to ban deepfakes in January. Republican Congressman Blames Mass Shootings on Women Having Rights. The next nail-biter is at the airports Passport Checkpoint. Anya arrives and Ivanova films the meetup surreptitiously on a GoPro. And they signed on as an act of activism.. On location, the team followed strict protocols with footage. Documentary Competition Grand Jury Prize, David Isteev, Olga Baranova, Maxim Lapunov, Panorama Publikumspreis (audience award) for Best Documentary, Ryan Laney, Eugen Brunig, Maxwell Anderson, Johnny Han and Piers Dennis, David France, Alice Henty, Askold Kurov and Joy A Tomchin, Best Broadcast Network or Cable Docuseries, Documentary Television Movie, or Non-Fiction Series, Alice Henty, David France, Joy A. Tomchin, Askold Kurov and Igor Myakotin, The Most Valuable Documentary of the Year, This page was last edited on 9 January 2023, at 01:52. Until it doesnt: In one of the films more breathtaking moments, the effects drop away after a gay refugee, Maksim Lapunov, reclaims his name and his real face at a news conference. We were stopped, and because I was an American in this incredibly hermetic part of the world, they pulled me out of the car and brought me in for questioning., When interrogated, France recited his well-rehearsed alibi: I was an insane rich guy who was a rabid fan of the Egyptian football team that had just traveled through Chechnya. Chechnya, there are no homosexuals. The Salt Lake Tribune, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) public charity and contributions are tax The three films Ive made are about a kind of a radical kind of queer activism, that I think really leads the world in bringing a kind of a love-based activism to these really awful issues and making a difference, France said. Welcome to Chechnya airs June 30 at 7 p.m. The activists dont know where she is, but, according to France, Theyve been told shes alive.. . That's David Isteev, a journalist turned activist at the start of Welcome to Chechnya, a devastating documentary about the Russian Federation republic's purge of its LGBTQ+ population. Chechnya runs itself as basically an autonomous entity, with a corrupt, oligarchic power structure . (President Vladimir Putins government is itself decidedly anti-gay, and has turned a blind eye to the kidnappings, torture and murder of the Kadyrov regime.) The First Chechen War explains a lot of what Russia and Putin are doing in Ukraine today: On New Year's Eve, 1994 Russian tanks and infantry fighting vehicles poured into the streets of Grozny with an assault expected to snuff out the self-declared Chechcen Republic of Ichkeria, as black smoke poured into the sky from oil tanks set ablaze by a dawn artillery bombardment. Oscar-nominated filmmaker David France follows the activists who expose Russia's war on gays. It was my greatest fear: that I could blow up the whole operation. Nor did the editing and VFX suites in New York. Its not legal to encrypt in Russia, so we were taking a risk, France notes. Its footage that was shot as trophies by the people who committed those crimes. This visual strategy has a curious effect: you look at people without really being able to see them. 4,370 followers. Oscar; Crticas; . Catch up on the years best movies, whether in theaters or now streaming at home. Si su padre, miembro del gobierno checheno . Documentarian David France faced an unenviable challenge with his latest film, "Welcome to Chechnya.". That tell is important, Laney said. In Russia, this equipment needs certain certifications and permissions. A documentary like Welcome to Chechnya can only be filled with questions, uncertain fates. 212 following. The unrelated subjects were mostly queer activists in New York who I found on Instagram and elsewhere, France said. And in fact, the Russian LGBTQ movement was left all alone to try and fashion some sort of response to what was going on there. And it restores to them their humanity in a way that would not have been possible under other circumstances., Still, why should we trust a documentary that uses deepfakes? Playing the aunties are cameraperson Alexandra Ivanova and a female activist. With little emotion, the young man explains his scars as his boyfriend touches those spots and says nothing. (The Get Out director Jordan Peele tried to raise awareness with an eerie deepfake of Barack Obama.) The 10 Best Movies of 2020 (So Far) Review: Spike Lees Da 5 Bloods Is Gold The Wild Life and Many Loves of Ava Gardner Inside Pete Davidson and John Mulaneys Make-A-Wish Friendship Now Streaming: Over 100 Years of Black Defiance at the Movies Is TV Sabotaging Itself With Shrinking Shows? From the Archive: Exposing MGMs Smear Campaign Against Rape Survivor Patricia Douglas. 10 Chechen gays get tortured and the whole world cares. Their storylines are framed by the narrative . What was a very expensive proposition has become even more expensive. He did say they have been concerned about safety at screenings, and that they took special safety precautions at Sundance to protect the people who appear in the film from any undue danger.. Want to get a head start on your Oscar predictions? 2022 International Documentary Association. "We don't have such people here," declares Ramzan Kadyrov, chuckling . On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Welcome to Chechnya, directed by David France and produced by Alice Henty, David France, Askold Kurov, and Joy A. Tomchin, 2020, 107 minutes. A gripping account of ACT UP and TAGs extraordinary lifesaving efforts during the early days of the AIDS epidemic, the film chronicled a community left to fend for itself in the face of mass medical negligence and societal indifference. and Anya, a young queer woman from Grozny, who wants to flee her powerful Chechen family. For Anyas rescue operation, the Sony stayed home. Thats where he was seized by the security agents. Everyone in Russia is buried in their phones, says France, so Kurov following suit wouldnt raise any suspicions. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Then its over, and Anya is free to go. Ramzan Kadyrov, President of Chechnya, initially denied casualties among his fighters, but on February 28 he acknowledged the deaths of two Chechen servicemen, while not giving their names. Everybody understood that this needed to be exposed, France said. Filmmaker David France goes inside what can only be called a genocide that Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has unleashed against his LGBTQ citizens. (We hear their real voices almost the entire film is subtitled. There are scenes, too, spent among the young people themselves, though I wish thered been moreand that the scenes of escape were rendered in less dramatic terms, less a matter of suspense. I tried to install the app, and it didnt work. That meant Ivanova was sneaking peeks or shooting blind throughout the operation. June 30, 2020. The step . Twitter has blocked the account of the Frontal program, which is aired on the German ZDF TV channel. A film about persecuted gay and lesbian Chechens uses digital manipulation to guard their identities without losing their humanity. D. Fox Harrell, professor of digital media and artificial intelligence at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said there was an educational potential in synthetic media, the term he prefers to deepfake redeeming it from mere deception. Deepfake Technology Enters the Documentary World. [5], One of the refugees, Maxim Lapunov, is publicly identified in the film, as he sought, and failed, to get legal redress from Russian authorities.[6]. A reckoning is essential for all of the crimes against human rights the smaller, less consequential ones like name-calling, the ones that are life altering and certainly the most extreme examples, like what we see happening in Chechnya, where its still going on, France said. What we did was to borrow from the world of deepfakes and find this social justice use for it, he explained. Members of the LGBTQ+ community are being systematically hunted, detained, tortured, and executed by Chechen authorities, civilians, and their own family members. Anya is just a pseudonym for is one of the many who have fled the Chechen Republic as they faced persecution by the government due to their orientation. Frances movie is very much an on-the-ground account of these happenings. Grisha was allowed out of prison because, apparently, hes from Siberia but the Chechen authorities later decided theyd made a mistake by letting a witness get away. Welcome to Chechnya. And also to support Maxim Lapunov and his family in their lawsuit. For security reasons, these individuals are introduced with aliases, and their circumstances and whereabouts are left deliberately vague. What our film proves is that this can be done in the right way., Deepfake Technology Enters the Documentary World, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/01/movies/deepfakes-documentary-welcome-to-chechnya.html. I felt the lack of any sort of safety net, and that was very frightening. Instead, they deployed Frances iPhone X and a GoPro Hero6. Kadyrov and his security forces have been widely accused by international human rights groups of extrajudicial arrests, torture and killings. It began with a drug raid when police arrested a young man and found sexually explicit images of men on his phone. On the other end of the line is Anya, a young lesbian whose father is a big muckity-muck in the Chechen government. All Rights Reserved. 21 . Summary: Searing urgency is a guiding force as Welcome to Chechnya shadows a group of activists who risk unimaginable peril to confront the ongoing anti-LGBTQ+ pogrom raging in the repressive and closed Russian republic. (The films cinematographer, Askold Kurov, stepped aside for this mission since its cover story required a female camera operator.). After ineffective attempts at funding Chechen opposition groups, a Russian invasion began on December 11, 1994. He called it an underblur or halo, intentionally added so youll be aware of the manipulation. When you have a lack of the actual face, in most cases it will induce a sense of disturbance., But Welcome to Chechnya could represent the introduction of a new kind of soft mask, one that hides a subjects identity while still allowing for a complex emotional attachment. And making people aware of whats happening with a film like Welcome to Chechnya is the first step. Patricia Thomson is a longtime film journalist and contributing writer for American Cinematographer. Posted on 21 de fevereiro de 2022 by . Data was immediately moved off-camera cards and loaded in triplicate onto encrypted drives; one was smuggled out of the country and two remained hidden in Russia. Sign up for our daily Hollywood newsletter and never miss a story. I think that documentary films have the power to affect and encourage and augment and foment social change, France said. Shooting Scenarios is a new column that takes a single scene and breaks it down cinematographically, looking at shooting logistics, creative challenges, and camera gear deployed. In one video, an incarcerated man is sexually assaulted off-camera by police. And they purchased one small LED panela Yongnuo YN-160 IIIfor shooting inside dark rooms or cars at night. The cruelty is medieval, but the time is now. Nichols said he was won over by Frances film. It was a theory, and then it worked better than we ever expected, Laney said of the painstaking yearlong visual work, which he likened to brush strokes, facial prosthetics and virtual cheek implants. Sustenance Without Sacrifices: Towards Equitable Workplaces, Sound Advice: How to Ensure Your Audio Playback Comes Through Loud and Clear, Documentary Sound: Setting up a Wireless System, 'The Rescue' Recounts the 2018 Thailand Cave Mission, Go with the Flow: Streamlining Your Post-Production Process, How Hidden Cameras Captured a Daring Rescue in 'Welcome to Chechnya'. [4] To protect the identities of the interviewees, they could not move the footage across the internet nor work on it in an open studio setting. I appeared to be smiling at my own image while actually grabbing shots over his shoulder. Its not a story about me, France says simply. Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically. Welcome to Chechnya opened with footage of activist David Isteev ( pictured below) waiting anxiously on his phone, listening to 21-year-old "Anya" - the names of all except the activists were changed, their faces and voices disguised - from the Chechen capital Grozny, tell how she was being blackmailed by a family member threatening to reveal her We meet survivors and their family members, including Grisha, who was beaten and tortured for 12 days so badly injured he could only crawl afterward. David France's daring documentary "Welcome to Chechnya" goes undercover to detail the actions of activists in response to the Chechen Republic's anti-gay purge. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission. 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