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. At the airport, photography is not allowed, though authorities tolerate selfies. The activists are sure to remind us that this violence affects more than just cisgender gay men; the regime is equally perilous for cis women and trans people, though these other stories dont seem to travel nearly as far. And that hasnt changed since the documentary was completed. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Here security guards inspect passports and sharply confer about one. They are heartbreaking. The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), also colloquially known as the Television Academy, is a professional honorary organization dedicated to the advancement of the television industry in the United States.It is a 501(c)(6) non-profit organization founded in 1946, the organization presents the Primetime Emmy Awards, an annual ceremony honoring achievement in U.S. primetime television. 2022 International Documentary Association. With no help from the Kremlin and only faint global condemnation, activists take matters into their own hands. Welcome to Chechnya: Directed by David France. Hearing the victims recount their stories is devastating. 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. 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? Managing to extricate men and women from there, they looked after them in safe houses in Moscow and elsewhere, before finally in the best outcome, at least relocating them to where they could live in safety. And what they had put together was a search and rescue operation, like something that you would imagine in a World War II movie. . Chechnya, also spelled Chechnia or Chechenia, republic in southwestern Russia, situated on the northern flank of the Greater Caucasus range. When transferring data from a card, for instance, that computer would have its Wi-Fi card removed and Bluetooth disabled. A group of activists risk their lives fighting for LGBTQ+ rights in Chechnya. So there was always this dark shadow of the violence that hung over every moment of the time that I was with them.. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. Welcome to Chechnya (HBO): An inside look at a group of activists risking their lives to confront the ongoing anti-LGBTQ campaign in the Russian republic of Chechnya. Without that outrage, it will keep going. In 2017, the closed Southwestern Russian republic of Chechnya became the center of a massive human rights crisis when the government started arresting, abducting, killing, and torturing LGBTIQ+ . His bigoted policies and authoritarian behavior make him just as bad a pick for the top job in Washington. A Anya la seguiremos en una fuga de pelcula de suspenso y algo similar pasar con otros personajes. Unlike the others, Grisha is unmasked late in the film when he goes before cameras to testify about whats happening in Chechnya. From the start, a disclaimer states that certain subjects have been digitally disguised for their safety. It made him so happy, France said. In Russia, this equipment needs certain certifications and permissions. But there's no doubting the depth of its fury and anguish on behalf of the victims and survivors we see and the many, many more that we don't. But politicians have become targets, too. Welcome to Chechnya is a blisteringly painful watch, one that imparts new meaning on the practice of bearing witness. Welcome to Chechnya is largely procedural, with long scenes detailing the steps it takes to covertly travel from one territory to another, toward safety or something like it. Uno de los casos que sigue el documental es el de "Anya", una joven pidiendo ayuda despus de que su to descubre su identidad homosexual. But I also want people to know what the conditions are for LGBTQ people around the globeThere are still 70 countries where its a crime to be queer, and eight of those countries, and several other semi-autonomous regions like Chechnya is, consider it a crime worthy of the death penalty., As international borders are closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the activists in Moscow need even more help. HBO's chilling "Welcome to Chechnya" depicts the heroism of ordinary people caught in an LGBTQ purge Director David France's riveting documentary never feels safe as he illuminates a world of. 50% of the Chechen population killed in 1944 and 200 000 Chechens killed (1/5 of the population) during the Chechen wars and hundreds of Chechens being assinated and going missing each year and no one gives a rats ass about Chechnya. Chechnya's leader Ramzan Kadyrov is a Putin stooge straight out of central casting, coyly egging on the atrocities in his ridiculous weightlifter shirt. Blurring out a mob informant? 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 But France has some hope that Putin can be pressured to rein in Kadyrov and stop him and the others who, under his authority, are carrying out these atrocities. If European countries were united as a single voice on LGBTQ issues, he said, that could happen. Interspersing the film we saw snatches of video (shot by the perpetrators, intercepted by activists) that showed just that happening, a gay purge being carried out in horrifically vivid detail. A guide to the hidden references in this buzzy anthologys new episodes, from first-season callbacks to what, Monica Lewinskys Verdict on the Johnny DeppAmber Heard Trial: We Are All Guilty. The fate of his call for investigation would be depressingly familiar. HBO. Thats where he was seized by the security agents. We dont have such people here. And my task was to convince them to let me shoot their faces and explore their journey, with a promise that I would find a way to disguise them.. This is documented by the people who did it themselves, and those same people have denied in public forum that anything like this is happening there. [1] The film centers on the anti-gay purges in Chechnya of the late 2010s, filming LGBT Chechen refugees using hidden cameras as they made their way out of Russia through a network of safehouses aided by activists. To avoid exposing their work, it was shot in secret, using hidden cameras, cell phones, GoPros, and handycams. In one video, an incarcerated man is sexually assaulted off-camera by police. France wanted to put a real human face on the story, so conventional techniques of disguising one's appearance, such as blurring their faces, filming them in darkness or hiring actors to stage re-enactments were not enough. And as in Frances first film, the people most in desperate need of help have once again been abandoned to their own devices. Some strange people came to my flat and spoke with my mom. Anya and her car of dress-shoppers got through. It was an insane proposition, but the cover story worked, France says. This documentary, which airs Tuesday at 8 p.m. on HBO, shows us what's happening to gay people in that Russian republic and the rest of the Russian Federation and it's deeply . Ghastly. 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). But things got much worse in early 2017, when the leader of the republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, a strongman with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, began a violent purge of anyone suspected of being gay or transgender. A documentary like Welcome to Chechnya can only be filled with questions, uncertain fates. To watch Frances latest is to be confronted by the moral dimensions of documentary filmmaking and maybe something deeper, concerning the slippery nature of identity itself. Say hello to deepfake. But as the movie tells us upfront, France took an extraordinary step to protect their identities further, using sophisticated facial-disguise technology. The film premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival,[8] and screened at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival. France didnt want to talk about any threats he or other members of the production team might have received. Afterwards, the activists reunite at a meeting spot, where the women change clothes and Anyas phone is destroyed. He made it his job to bring joy to people. [9][10], It was shown at the Adelaide Film Festival in October 2020. I come from a news background, so I love the idea of making something that really could have happened, said Francesca Panetta, co-director of the video. Eight years later, France has delivered a depressingly necessary companion piece, but where his previous pictures battles were settled history fought in archival footage, Welcome to Chechnya is ripped straight from the headlines, using iPhones and GoPros to take us behind the lines of a genocide happening here and now. 'Welcome to Chechnya' Review: A look at state-sanctioned torture, rape and murder of homosexuals in Russia. It allows us to feel that whammy of: This guy was beaten up and tortured and electrocuted and I am seeing him him being his face bare his soul.. You have been subscribed to WBUR Today. 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. Want to get a head start on your Oscar predictions? One of the most powerful moments in the documentary, "Welcome to Chechnya," premiering June 30 at 10:00 pm on HBO, has a young gay man recalling his arrest and torture. Keeping people in hiding, taking care of people, keeping them safe and fed, and with medical care for this long extended period, while theyre still struggling with foreign governments to try to keep open that back door to humanitarian parole visas, France said. Welcome to Chechnya notes that, under the Trump administration, the United States had not accepted any refugees from Chechnya or the Russian Federation who were fleeing persecution, torture and death because of their sexual orientation. 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. Many who survived imprisonment have fled to Moscow, where they live in a safe house while seeking political asylum in other countries. And then theres Maxim Lapunov, who came to Moscow after being released from prison, where he was tortured for several weeks in 2017. The false face morphs into the real face of Maxim Lapunov, who later appeared with France and two members of the Russian rescue operation, Olga Baranova and David Isteev, at the Sundance premiere to a thunderous standing ovation. 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. ), Everybody understood the importance of telling the story. The Montreal Mafia Murders: Blood, Gore, Cannolis, and Hockey Bags, A Comprehensive Guide to Why a Ron DeSantis Presidency Would Be as Terrifying as a Trump One. 4,370 followers. My point in telling the story is to tell just enough of it so that its undeniable that its going on there. I was so involved in the technical work for the months leading up to Sundance that I hadnt stepped back to see the film. People were "disappeared.". Despite this, she managed to capture all the essentials. So last century. She has never been at home alone before but must wait indoors, as the activists try to arrange for any country to take her in. Heinous. Speaking by Zoom from London, she summed up the swirl of emotions nervousness, liberation, even possible enlightenment set off by deepfakes arrival in the documentary world. It allows my subjects to narrate their own stories. The Network helps him move to an undisclosed location in Europe with his boyfriend of 10 years. He was tortured by. David Frances HBO documentary about Chechnyas anti-LGBT pogrom is brutal, but necessary. The main location we saw was one of the Moscow safe houses that provided a temporary home for those en route to somewhere else; its routine of wary everyday life, interspersed by periodic departures for the airport, seemed almost normal until painfully broken by a traumatised young man attempting suicide. In a sense, Welcome to Chechnya is an applied special effect that lasts an entire movie. After some chitchat, the women leave by taxi for the airport. If anything, the activists tell us, the women need more help escaping. When he made his first documentary, 2012's How to Survive a Plague, about the early AIDS activists in America, the director didn't hesitate to describe his protagonists there as heroes, for the way that they stood up for what they believed in, against adversity: it's an accolade that seems no less appropriate here. They thought I was some sort of crazy nut.. and Anya, a young queer woman from Grozny, who wants to flee her powerful Chechen family. Nor did the editing and VFX suites in New York. Now Streaming. (Pavel Golovkin | AP file photo) Chechen regional leader Ramzan Kadyrov smiles prior to President Vladimir Putin's annual state of the nation address in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, on Dec. 1, 2016. The pre-existing material in "Welcome to Chechnya" is by far its most distressing: grainy cellphone and surveillance camera footage of real-life homophobic attacks in the republic, including a. We come to care about them. Its got a beautiful lens on it, says the director, but it looks like a toy. 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'. Did the Utah Legislature do enough to save the Great Salt Lake? Then its over, and Anya is free to go. Ryan Laney, Frances visual effects supervisor and a 30-year veteran whose credits include Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), persuaded the director that a deep-learning computer process was the easiest answer, even on a documentarys tight budget. Their identities are protected via a new form of digital masking, which similar to deepfake technology overlays the faces of others while preserving the camera subjects original expressions. And they signed on as an act of activism.. Another substitute face, this time of Joy A. Tomchin, was also used to disguise one of the Chechens in the film. Documentary Special Jury Award for Editing, U.S. Like all great political documentaries, Welcome to Chechnya is a call to action. Advocacy meets suspense in "Welcome to Chechnya," a chilling examination of both the brutality that the Chechen LGBT community is forced to face on a daily basis and the difficulty of leaving. Welcome To Chechnya. At no time were lights or external sound gear used on the film, with two exceptions. For security reasons, these individuals are introduced with aliases, and their circumstances and whereabouts are left deliberately vague. Would you like to receive event invitations, funding news, and other updates from the International Documentary Association? 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. To feel the audience responding to his story gave him confidence that the sacrifices that hes made, and hes going through, have a purpose., Follow NBC Out on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram. Within two weeks of David France reading an article in The New Yorker about the persecution of LGBTQ people in Chechnya, he was on a plane headed to Moscow. I think the point's been made and now it's time to take . But a problem surfaced the night before the rescue. Welcome to Chechnya airs June 30 at 7 p.m. [11], The film received universal critical acclaim, holding an approval rating of 100% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 72 reviews, with an average rating of 8.7/10. 212 following. I didnt want to create a reel of horrors, I wanted to underscore what had happened to the people who were in the film, France said. Its not legal to encrypt in Russia, so we were taking a risk, France notes. 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. 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. The target is Anya (a pseudonym), whose plight is revealed at the films start: Pleading for help in a phone call to Russian LGBT Network crisis response coordinator David Isteev, she explains that her uncle is threatening to reveal her lesbianism to her fathera high-ranking government officialunless she has sex with him. I felt the lack of any sort of safety net, and that was very frightening. All of the above. We werent just erasing cards; we were overwriting them to make the data irretrievable. Once the encrypted hard drive arrived in New York, theyd send word back to Russia to overwrite the two remaining drives. The moment is extremely tense. We have group therapy sessions about it to process the work that we had gone through.. These scenes dont tell us nearly as much as the scenes in which we hear people speak about their experiences firsthandas one young man does, detailing his torture to his boyfriend, with whom he is joyfully able to reunite. 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