Anyone can read what you share. Heinous. And as in Frances first film, the people most in desperate need of help have once again been abandoned to their own devices. The films production was obviously clandestine, guerilla filmmaking to a tee, with director France and his cinematographer Askold Kurov seeking invisibility as they worked with handheld cameras, and catching what they could on phones when that was the only way to operate. He was tortured by. It was by far the most emotional journey Ive ever been on, said France in an interview with The Salt Lake Tribune. The activists intercepted numerous videos, captured on cell phones, of people being tortured, attacked on the street and even raped. But I found it remarkably effective in the way it lets these young men and women tell their stories and express a level of emotion that would have been lost if they had been filmed with blurred faces or in heavy shadows. It made him so happy, France said. Instead, we see David and a team of associates covertly enter Grozny with a carefully crafted plan to extract desperate subjects - in this case, "Anya", the twenty-one year old daughter of a local government official who is being blackmailed by her uncle, threatening to expose her sexuality if she doesn't allow him to rape her. Nonetheless, a camera inside the cab keeps recording. Welcome to Chechnya is likely to be the most urgent documentary of the year, but makes many exploitative missteps along the way. Say hello to deepfake. It was a gay purge. 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.. "People in Chechnya who are suspected of being lesbian, gay or bisexual, are facing a 'new wave of persecution' following a spate of killings involving torture, and other rights abuses," a group. 'Country Queers' shares the 'joy' and 'pain' of rural LGBTQ life, NYC's Queer Liberation March draws thousands, clashes with NYPD, Two New Yorkers vie to be first gay Black men in Congress. So there was always this dark shadow of the violence that hung over every moment of the time that I was with them.. Its an essential part of our total cultural history: the face as window, the core of our identity, the most distinguishing feature of the body, said Bill Nichols, professor emeritus at San Francisco State University and a pioneer in the field of documentary studies. 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. It's a call for justice for the tortured and murdered in Chechnya, and a stark reminder of the realities many. Many who survived imprisonment have fled to Moscow, where they live in a safe house while seeking political asylum in other countries. Playing the aunties are cameraperson Alexandra Ivanova and a female activist. And it still is. It smiles, it cries in exactly the same way, but it is somebody elses face.. But its much more meaningful. Welcome to Chechnya is not easy to watch. If anything, the activists tell us, the women need more help escaping. Agents warned Ivanova she couldnt film. A lavalier mic (considered professional gear, thus suspect) was used when safely inside the shelter. We dont have such people here. 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. The website's critics consensus reads: "An illuminating and urgent call to action, Welcome to Chechnya portrays the horrors of the mass persecution of the LGBTQ+ community in the Chechen Republic with tenacity and tenderness. Whats not obvious in the filmthough not on purposeis that this shot was taken from the backup teams taxi, not Anyas. 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. "Welcome to Chechnya" is a vital and urgent portrait of an unprecedented humanitarian crisis, and the world needs to hear about it. France didnt want to talk about any threats he or other members of the production team might have received. Since 2016, Chechnya's tyrannical leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, has waged a depraved operation to "cleanse the blood" of LGBTQ+ Searing urgency is a guiding force as Welcome . 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. 4,370 followers. IE 11 is not supported. It comes midway through the HBO documentary that premieres June 30, so we've already met the Russian LGBT activists who help Chechen gays and lesbians flee the republic's anti-gay purge. . (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.) 'They Told Me I Wasn't A Human Being': Gay Men Speak Of Brutal Treatment In Chechnya, Activists Say 40 Detained And 2 Dead In Gay Purge In Chechnya. Unlike the others, Grisha is unmasked late in the film when he goes before cameras to testify about whats happening in Chechnya. To revist this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. The Russian LGBT Network moves her into an apartment where she must hole up for weeks on end, waiting for a travel visa that might never arrive. The most nerve-wracking sequence in David Frances Welcome to Chechnya is, without doubt, the rescue of Anya. The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly. And France had even more horrifying clips that he held back. 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. All of the above. Some thought it was too much of a risk. 2023 Cond Nast. I was so involved in the technical work for the months leading up to Sundance that I hadnt stepped back to see the film. (Photo courtesy of Igor Myakotin/Welcome to Chechnya) Maxim Lapunov at the Sundance Film Festival. They thought I was some sort of crazy nut.. The unrelated subjects were mostly queer activists in New York who I found on Instagram and elsewhere, France said. Did the Utah Legislature do enough to save the Great Salt Lake? People there are killed and tortured for being gay, as described in scary detail within the film. 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. Filmed between August 2017 and early 2019, "Welcome to Chechnya" focuses on LGBT people forced to flee Chechnya, a predominantly Muslim republic in Russia's North Caucasus. Grade: B+ "Welcome to Chechnya" premiered at the Sundance. 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. Welcome to Chechnya ends almost exactly as it begins, only a year later with a weary Isteev telling us this story still doesnt have an ending. Then he gets another call. You can just put something like a book on top of the GoPro and it becomes invisible. She adds, You can always tell them you didnt understand.. The film splits focus between her story and that of Grisha, a torture victim and Russian national who after much deliberation decides to come forward and file a criminal complaint, hoping to expose these atrocities on the world stage. And as in France's first film, the people. The moment is extremely tense. He called it an underblur or halo, intentionally added so youll be aware of the manipulation. Since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine in February, the Russian government has shut down . Their visual information was married on a deep-learning level with the Chechen footage. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. Welcome to Chechnya is a blisteringly painful watch, one that imparts new meaning on the practice of bearing witness. 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 sexuality. Would you like to receive event invitations, funding news, and other updates from the International Documentary Association? 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. It said that people in the caf saw the camera and had become nervous about it, that I should hide it better, Ivanova recounts. Chechen forces successfully raided Russian-held Grozny for weapons in March. David France, left, and the face-capture producer Johnny Han watch a volunteer in the studio. 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. The computer did not have the capacity to touch the internet, France says. 'Welcome to Chechnya' Director on Doc's Impact: "It's Engendering a Real Wave of Empathy for LGBTQ Russians" Oscar nominee David France's startling depiction of the courageous effort to save. And then theres the evidence we see for ourselves: cell phone footage of people being beaten and harassed. And also to support Maxim Lapunov and his family in their lawsuit. The film follows the work of activists rescuing survivors of torture in Chechnya. 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. 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. And in 70 countries across the globe where its still illegal to be gay. 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. But there is not, of course, footage of them actually being tortured. Shameful. What was a very expensive proposition has become even more expensive. Welcome to Chechnya is a 2020 documentary film by American reporter, author and documentarian David France. Training viewers to look for even the obvious signs would help, he said. Those are the stories that have really fascinated me the way that their activists handle these challenges and the specter of death. 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. 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. / how old is aiger in beyblade burst rise / welcome to chechnya what happened to anya By 21 Feb 2022 Welcome to Chechnya (2020) Plot Showing all 3 items Jump to: Summaries (2) Synopsis (1) Summaries A group of activists risk their lives fighting for LGBTQ+ rights in Chechnya. Reflecting on his participation in Anyas rescue, France says, I dont think Ive experienced anything as harrowing as that in my life. Chechnyas leader Ramzan Kadyrov is a Putin stooge straight out of central casting, coyly egging on the atrocities in his ridiculous weightlifter shirt. With Olga Baranova, David Isteev, Ramzan Kadyrov, Maxim Lapunov. The cruelty is medieval, but the time is now. Its not a story about me, France says simply. He is confronted over the allegation that. 10 Chechen gays get tortured and the whole world cares. His method essentially involved filming unrelated subjects in a studio with a nine-camera array capturing their faces from all angles. Harrowing and brutal, Welcome to Chechnya, France's third film, is all the more prescient right now. After ineffective attempts at funding Chechen opposition groups, a Russian invasion began on December 11, 1994. Everybody understood that this needed to be exposed, France said. The mere presence of France's camera might endanger their lives and their work, but it's also crucial to drawing international attention to the Chechen government's abuses. Instead, they edited the film in a windowless room in order to keep with security protocols. 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. Twitter has blocked the account of the Frontal program, which is aired on the German ZDF TV channel. That's how the moscow duchy looked like in 14th century. The Network helps him move to an undisclosed location in Europe with his boyfriend of 10 years. When the documentarian David France decided to chronicle the anti-gay and lesbian purges that had unleashed a wave of fear and violence in Chechnya, he needed more than just a camera. On the other end of the line is Anya, a young lesbian whose father is a big muckity-muck in the Chechen government. Its a human life, and she only had this one chance to run. Adding to the pressure, At this point, theres no second camera inside, so everything was on me., The next stress came at the roadside checkpoint, when security guards are troubled by one passport. Its access is unprecedented, made possible only by anonymizing the faces of these exiles using deepfake technology that makes them appear just this side of normal. Some strange people came to my flat and spoke with my mom. We dont talk about this much, but were still in therapy about it. Frances provocative solution is Welcome to Chechnya, the unsettling film that debuted Tuesday on HBO and involves extensive postproduction work: It marshals advanced computer technology to superimpose supple, completely fabricated faces over 23 hunted individuals. The main camera, operated by Kurov, was a Sony FDR-AX100 handycam. We witnessed Anyas extrication from Chechnya across the mountains, the first step in an evacuation that saw her moved to temporary safety in the hinterland of a neighbouring country (her journey would go no further, not the only example where family coercion or other intervention would prove more powerful than fear). These are the images being broadcast by Russian propaganda channels, leveraging the very presence of Chechen. But politicians have become targets, too. Grisha now going by his real name, Maxim may have had his identity finally restored, but the fate of his call for investigation would be depressingly familiar, refused in another rote court decision (his fight for justice continues at the European Court for Hight Rights). Shes just fearless, says France. 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. David Frances HBO documentary about Chechnyas anti-LGBT pogrom is brutal, but necessary. [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.[1]. I decided not to use any special equipment or hidden camerasfor example, a camera in your eyeglasses. 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 (All refugees are assigned pseudonyms, such as Grisha and Anya.) Like other refugees, Anya had her face replaced with a digital veil in post-production (see In Digital Disguise). Ad Choices. I think the point's been made and now it's time to take . This documentary, which airs Tuesday at 8 p.m. on HBO, shows us whats happening to gay people in that Russian republic and the rest of the Russian Federation and its deeply disturbing. 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. Welcome to Chechnya is a terrifying documentary about the gay purges happening in Chechnya, Russia. 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. So she held the GoPro low, shielding it with her other arm, or made sure to tuck it behind a coffee cup. Looking for more? Ramzan Kadyrov, the president of the autonomous. Welcome to Chechnya, directed by David France and produced by Alice Henty, David France, Askold Kurov, and Joy A. Tomchin, 2020, 107 minutes. And if a post-Trump administration merely restored the Obama-era foreign policies that defended LGBTQ people around the world, then that would definitely cause a change in whats happening in Russia and elsewhere.. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission. Welcome To Chechnya. He was tortured and forced to name those men, who were then also arrested, tortured and forced to name others, setting off a horrific chain reaction. Chechnya, also spelled Chechnia or Chechenia, republic in southwestern Russia, situated on the northern flank of the Greater Caucasus range. Chechnya is bordered by Russia proper on the north, Dagestan republic on the east and southeast, the country of Georgia on the southwest, and Ingushetiya republic on the west. (Photo courtesy of HBO Documentary Films via AP) "Bogdan" and his boyfriend, "Grisha," stress out as they attempt to escape from Russia. (We hear their real voices almost the entire film is subtitled. David France's HBO film shines light on the brutal campaign by officials in the semi-autonomous Russian region to imprison, torture and sometimes kill gay men. Theyre one of Hollywoods brightest starsand most troubled actors. In one video, an incarcerated man is sexually assaulted off-camera by police. This is David Isteev, a crisis intervention coordinator for the Russian LGBT Network, and he spends his days helping gay and transgender Chechens flee a place where they are no longer safe. But still these elegantly edited cinematic set-pieces are interrupted by blunt visions of horror trophy videos captured on Chechen citizens cell phones of savage beatings, gang rapes and even a stoning. Since 2016, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has led a pogrom against the . 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. Its footage that was shot as trophies by the people who committed those crimes. So I became a selfie queen, says France. Chechnya's . 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. . When he went to visit a guy he met online, policemen hiding in the bathroom arrested and detained him. 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. When transferring data from a card, for instance, that computer would have its Wi-Fi card removed and Bluetooth disabled. Posted on 21 de fevereiro de 2022 by . We come to care about them. Thats where he was seized by the security agents. She would say, But it was texted to me by my friend. And the conversation I had with her is what I want people to have after seeing my film: Where did it come from?, In a way, she said, that discussion is more important than specific techniques on how to spot deepfakes because the technology is going to get better so fast., At the moment, she added, most deepfakes you can spot with the naked eye., France isnt hiding his. Chechnya, there are no homosexuals. But a problem surfaced the night before the rescue. War brought Vladimir Putin to power in 1999. They have . Kadyrov and his security forces have been widely accused by international human rights groups of extrajudicial arrests, torture and killings. Some of the men were released with the expectation that their own relatives would kill them, since the stigma of homosexuality runs deep in this ultra-conservative, primarily Muslim society. [1] A FILM BY DAVID FRANCE. I wanted you to feel what he felt at that moment, France said. Documentarian David France faced an unenviable challenge with his latest film, "Welcome to Chechnya.". To remain inconspicuous, only amateur camera gear was used on the film. [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]. David wanted to tell the story as quickly and urgently as possible; there are enough examples, definitely. The camerawork is rough and ragged; the sense of menace is palpable. We also see a few clips that France acquired including a gay man being raped by his captors and a lesbian whose life is about to be ended by members of her own family and it sucks the breath right out of you. One creative project thats come out of Harrells program, the Center for Advanced Virtuality, is a seven-minute video titled In Event of Moon Disaster. In it, a notorious 1969 speech written for Richard Nixon meant to be delivered only in the wake of a catastrophic Apollo 11 mishap is merged with the actual televised 1974 resignation speech, resulting in a spooky bit of alternative history. All rights reserved. The most nerve-wracking sequence in David France's Welcome to Chechnya is, without doubt, the rescue of Anya. So when I met him, he was an open, generous figure who allowed me to share his journey with him in the most profound way., In order to hide the identities of the residents in the safe house, France used technology to replace their faces with those of 22 LGBTQ activists in New York City. 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Horrific. "We don't have such people here," declares Ramzan Kadyrov, chuckling . We witnessed the dramatic press conference, organised by Russias Committee against Torture, at which that happened, which was also the moment that the film let slip the visual technique that had allowed the director to mask the faces of his subjects (the pioneering effect essentially reverses the image-manipulating possibilities of DeepFake). 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. I was told that Maxim had agreed, even on the first conversation, to allow me to film him and that he was a charismatic character, a person who is an entertainer, France said. The operation begins in a fast-food restaurant. None of that is included in the film. A film about persecuted gay and lesbian Chechens uses digital manipulation to guard their identities without losing their humanity. People and footage had to be protected at all costs. And hes drawing some hope from the ongoing protests against racism taking place across the United States and around the world. It allows my subjects to narrate their own stories. One in particular sticks with me: a pop singer named Zelim Bakaev, who disappeared in 2017 and is thought to been captured, tortured, and murdered after attending his sisters wedding. . In Russia, this equipment needs certain certifications and permissions. Thanks to the extraordinary access attained by France and company, were provided passenger seat views of daring midnight escapes and hair-raising trips through customs, with a percolating electronic score out of a Michael Mann picture. 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+ . LDS Church wants to light up a temple in a place that prides itself on dark skies, For husband-and-wife team, this new restaurant is the culmination of a decadeslong dream. Anya's story is one of the main threads. Everyones nervous, knowing that at any minute Anyas name could appear on a federal wanted list. A checkpoint is en route. Which meant, in the cases we saw here, abroad, in which they were assisted by a range of international gay organisations, as well as those embassies in Moscow, Canada clearly prominent among them, that proved receptive. Isteev was the aptly titled crisis intervention coordinator for Russias largest gay rights group, The Russian LGBT Network, Baranova the director of the Moscow-based Community Center for LGBTI+ Initiatives. He had seen television news interviews from the Russian, largely Muslim republic: the subjects were dimmed in shadows, their voices digitally altered, but he found it hard to connect with them. Maybe shocking. deductible, Report a missed paper by emailingsubscribe@sltrib.comor calling801-237-2900, For e-edition questions or comments, contact customer support801-237-2900or emailsubscribe@sltrib.com.