To have the savvy to negotiate a political media landscape where a video could potentially be a deepfake, or a legitimate video could be called a deepfake, I think those are cases people need to be aware of, he said. 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. He called it an underblur or halo, intentionally added so youll be aware of the manipulation. Instead, they edited the film in a windowless room in order to keep with security protocols. It said that people in the caf saw the camera and had become nervous about it, that I should hide it better, Ivanova recounts. 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. After the initial gains of the Russian army, the Chechen rebels demonstrated a . Disgraceful. 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. Review by Darren Carver-Balsiger 7. Chechen forces successfully raided Russian-held Grozny for weapons in March. 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). This is the kind of film destined to be on "essential" documentary lists for decades to come, the kind we will look back on as critical documentation of a historic wrongdoing. 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'. Documentarian David France faced an unenviable challenge with his latest film, "Welcome to Chechnya.". And then theres Maxim Lapunov, who came to Moscow after being released from prison, where he was tortured for several weeks in 2017. David France, left, and the face-capture producer Johnny Han watch a volunteer in the studio. . Si su padre, miembro del gobierno checheno . Did the Utah Legislature do enough to save the Great Salt Lake? With little emotion, the young man explains his scars as his boyfriend touches those spots and says nothing. His entire family has to be moved. 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. 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. David wanted to tell the story as quickly and urgently as possible; there are enough examples, definitely. Since 2016, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has led a pogrom against the . 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. Sign up for our daily Hollywood newsletter and never miss a story. Tushayev was responsible for kidnapping, torturing and murdering LGBTQ+ people. Welcome to Chechnya, which premiered at Sundance in January and won the U.S. documentary special jury award for editing, is at once repellent and fascinating as were introduced to people whose lives are in danger because of their sexual orientation including some who have survived imprisonment, beatings and torture. I appeared to be smiling at my own image while actually grabbing shots over his shoulder. 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. 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. 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. His second documentary, The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson (2017), focuses on a self-described drag queen and one of the leaders of the Stonewall uprising whose death in 1992 was ruled a suicide by police despite considerable evidence she was killed. Six months pass, a visa elusive. 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. Welcome to Chechnya is a 2020 documentary film by American reporter, author and documentarian David France. Olga Baranova, from left, David Isteev, director David France, and Maxim Lapunov pose for a portrait to promote the film "Welcome to Chechnya" during the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, on Jan. 26, 2020. The most nerve-wracking sequence in David France's Welcome to Chechnya is, without doubt, the rescue of Anya. Playing the aunties are cameraperson Alexandra Ivanova and a female activist. The film follows a number of people who get out of Chechnya. Its a huge enterprise but I think it works, he added. Their storylines are framed by the narrative . And as in France's first film, the people. Similarly harrowing, but also more hopeful, is the experience of a 30-year-old Russian businessman, here called "Grisha," who was detained and beaten for 12 days during a trip to Chechnya. . 21 . sltrib.com 1996-2023 The Salt Lake Tribune. Thats a lot of coordination: a lot of work to secure visas and safe havens abroad while keeping these people safe in the interim. And this changes nothing. Youre forced to reckon with the nature of identityhow it can cost someone their life. Patricia Thomson is a longtime film journalist and contributing writer for American Cinematographer. War brought Vladimir Putin to power in 1999. You can try, Jon Stewart's Political Comedy 'Irresistible' Is A Condescending Attempt To Skewer Liberal Condescension, Olivier Assayas' Historical Thriller 'Wasp Network' Tells The True Story Of 1990s Cuban Espionage, Spike Lee's Vietnam Epic 'Da 5 Bloods' Uncovers Buried Bombs, Both Personal and Political. David Frances HBO documentary about Chechnyas anti-LGBT pogrom is brutal, but necessary. The step raises familiar questions about nonfiction movies. Its not a story about me, France says simply. They are tough. (Photo courtesy of Igor Myakotin/Welcome to Chechnya) Maxim Lapunov at the Sundance Film Festival. The people chronicled in Frances film have pictures on their phones documenting the torture they suffered, some of which we see. Welcome to Chechnya is a terrifying documentary about the gay purges happening in Chechnya, Russia. Even Facebook, not known for its strict policing of content, pledged to ban deepfakes in January. (Before getting out of the cab, he dropped his own iPhone X on the floor.) France doesnt see it as opening a new can of worms so much as the same old one. Nonetheless, a camera inside the cab keeps recording. For most of the 100 minutes that followed, Isteev seemed to be in much the same position, trying to juggle the fates of those who had ended up under his protection as he attempted to spirit them to safety. '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. When he went to visit a guy he met online, policemen hiding in the bathroom arrested and detained him. 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After six months of quarantine in a safe house awaiting a visa, she lost hope and left. 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. Documentary Special Jury Award for Editing, U.S. Im still processing, and so is the rest of the crew. The found footage of attacks on members of the Chechen LGBTQ community illustrates the level of terror victims experienced and what might happen to them if they got caught. People and footage had to be protected at all costs. Although some didnt. Follow. We have group therapy sessions about it to process the work that we had gone through.. 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. 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. Distressing. But I knew I wanted to tell a much more in-depth story about what something as hideous as this meant to the people who survived it.. 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. He denies the torture outright, in other words; so does the Kremlin. Im still in contact with all those people. And I understood, of course.. "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. 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. When transferring data from a card, for instance, that computer would have its Wi-Fi card removed and Bluetooth disabled. 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. 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. Chechnyas leader Ramzan Kadyrov is a Putin stooge straight out of central casting, coyly egging on the atrocities in his ridiculous weightlifter shirt. A film about persecuted gay and lesbian Chechens uses digital manipulation to guard their identities without losing their humanity. (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.) 2020 documentary about the anti-LGBT purges in Chechnya, facial replacement techniques using artificial intelligence, Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature, Outstanding Directional Achievement in Documentary, Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking, "HBO Documentary Films Lands Sundance-Bound Welcome To Chechnya, About Harsh Plight Of LGBTQ Community In Russian Republic", "How Hidden Cameras Captured a Daring Rescue in 'Welcome to Chechnya'", "Sundance 2020: How VFX Pulled Welcome to Chechnya Out of the Shadows Exclusive", 'It Only Ends When They're Dead.' We dont have any gays. If there are any, he continues, they ought to be eradicatedsent to Canada, for the sake of purifying the country. 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. Chechnya's leader Ramzan Kadyrov is a Putin stooge straight out of central casting, coyly egging on the atrocities in his ridiculous weightlifter shirt. The next nail-biter is at the airports Passport Checkpoint. 4,370 followers. 4,370 Followers, 212 Following, 197 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Welcome To Chechnya (@welcometochechnya) welcometochechnya. I was so involved in the technical work for the months leading up to Sundance that I hadnt stepped back to see the film. Everyone in Russia is buried in their phones, says France, so Kurov following suit wouldnt raise any suspicions. I want people to be invested in it. I want them to feel responsible for doing something to help stop it., Donate to the newsroom now. For example, we hear within the opening few minutes the testimony of a young Muslim girl (named "Anya", although all names have been changed) whose sexuality has been discovered by her uncle, who vows to tell . Welcome to Chechnya is a grimly ironic title for a documentary that plays like a chilling undercover thriller. 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. Weve heard historical context, seen horrific trophy videos of assault and murder, and spent time in the secret shelter where queer refugees await visas. Here security guards inspect passports and sharply confer about one. I love her. Like all great political documentaries, Welcome to Chechnya is a call to action. (We hear their real voices almost the entire film is subtitled. Without that outrage, it will keep going. Ramzan Kadyrov, the president of the autonomous region of Russia, enacted a campaign in 2017 to find, imprison, torture and sometimes kill LGBTQ Chechens. And in 70 countries across the globe where its still illegal to be gay. And I was outraged that they were being forced to do this all on their own, and that the world wasnt coming to pay attention to and put pressure against the Chechen government.". Welcome to Chechnya airs June 30 at 7 p.m. 197 posts. But politicians have become targets, too. When we learned of that footage, it was shocking, France said. Many who survived imprisonment have fled to Moscow, where they live in a safe house while seeking political asylum in other countries. Chechnya runs itself as basically an autonomous entity, with a corrupt, oligarchic power structure . He was tortured by. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. 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 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. His film reveals the ongoing danger to LGBTQ Chechens targeted for persecution and death in a campaign to 'cleanse' the republic. Many of the faces we see are actually the faces of people from outside Chechnya, who lent their likenesses to the film. Say hello to deepfake. Finding the right word to describe Welcome to Chechnya isnt easy. 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