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. 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. Instead, they deployed Frances iPhone X and a GoPro Hero6. A film about persecuted gay and lesbian Chechens uses digital manipulation to guard their identities without losing their humanity. Since 2016, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has led a pogrom against the . Welcome to Chechnya is not easy to watch. And that hasnt changed since the documentary was completed. 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. And yet, here is proof., France spent about 18 months filming in Moscow and Chechnya. Immediately, as theyre being slapped awake and their arm bandaged, we hear a reprimand: Dont fucking create problems for us. And: There are other people here besides you.. 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. Without that outrage, it will keep going. So I became a selfie queen, says France. Like all great political documentaries, Welcome to Chechnya is a call to action. When he was captured on the streets of Grozny, he had been selling balloon art. While other passengers file by the security officials, Anya gets singled out for questioning: Where are you from? Whats your purpose of travel? How long will you stay? Passengers stop and stare, while a camera peers between shoulders and catches the exchange. 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.". Fortunately, the brave Grisha has the support of his immediate family, who decide to move with him; as his mother notes in one poignant scene, her loyalty is to her family not to an oppressive government. and Anya, a young queer woman from Grozny, who wants to flee her powerful Chechen family. Luckily, they had enough faith in me. There is, for example, the case of a woman they call Anya, whose father is a high-ranking official in Chechnya and whose uncle has threatened to tell her father about her sexualitya death sentenceunless she sleeps with him. 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. The film follows the work of activists rescuing survivors of torture in Chechnya. Follow. And France had even more horrifying clips that he held back. The face moves exactly the same way. 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. The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly. "[12] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 86 out of 100 based on 17 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[13]. "Welcome to Chechnya" is a vital and urgent portrait of an unprecedented humanitarian crisis, and the world needs to hear about it. Welcome to Chechnya chronicles the persecution of LGBTQ youth in this ultra-conservative society. 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 . People felt for them in a very emotional way, and showed it, France said. 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. 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. It had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 26, 2020 and was released on June 30, 2020, by HBO Films. Want to get a head start on your Oscar predictions? They were horrible stories and theres no doubt that they were real, France, an Oscar-nominated activist filmmaker, said. 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. Maybe it shouldnt be. So there was always this dark shadow of the violence that hung over every moment of the time that I was with them.. Another of these young people tries to slit their wrists. The mere presence of. 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. (The Get Out director Jordan Peele tried to raise awareness with an eerie deepfake of Barack Obama.) A gay couple in Welcome to Chechnya. The faces were replaced in postproduction. (Weve come a long way from slapping black bars over their eyes or sitting in a shadow on Dateline.) Theres a gasp-inducing moment when Grisha goes public and the digital augmentations drop away, revealing his real face for the first time. Get a weekly digest of our critical highlights in your inbox each Thursday! 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.' 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. Its not legal to encrypt in Russia, so we were taking a risk, France notes. 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. And I understood, of course.. Harrowing and brutal, Welcome to Chechnya, France's third film, is all the more prescient right now. El caso central de WELCOME TO CHECHNYA no es el de Anya sino el de Maxim, cuya complicada historia -que incluye a su pareja, familia y varias idas y vueltas- se ir contando a travs del film e incluye muchos elementos dramticos ms. A film about persecuted gay and lesbian Chechens uses digital manipulation to guard their identities without losing their humanity. That tell is important, Laney said. 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. So I decided to lay low., Its not gone well for Anya. Since the films Sundance premiere Ive seen a few folks take exception to the slickness with which France and editor Tyler H. Walk have given Welcome to Chechnya the lean sizzle of a white-knuckle suspense picture, and I must confess Ive wrestled with whether or not Im trivializing serious subject matter when I tell people I spent most of the movie on the edge of my seat. And then theres the evidence we see for ourselves: cell phone footage of people being beaten and harassed. 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. I want people to be invested in it. Like other refugees, Anya had her face replaced with a digital veil in post-production (see In Digital Disguise). Until now, its use has largely been limited to anonymous online mischief of various degrees of severity, like inserting Nicolas Cages grin into movies Cage never acted in. And hes drawing some hope from the ongoing protests against racism taking place across the United States and around the world. Disgraceful. Sometimes thats a tall order. And as in France's first film, the people. Plans start at $9.99/month. A group of activists risk their lives fighting for LGBTQ+ rights in Chechnya. Ghastly. Everyone in Russia is buried in their phones, says France, so Kurov following suit wouldnt raise any suspicions. 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. 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. They were keepsakes from these horrible events, and they were also deliverables. Heinous. T he anti-gay purge in Chechnya began in 2017. What comes across is the ease with which a person can disappear in plain sight, for obvious reasons, and a governmentcommitted to its hateful pogromcan simply shrug it off. On location, the team followed strict protocols with footage. (We hear their real voices almost the entire film is subtitled. Now, it must bring him down Jonathan Littell Putin believed he could invade Ukraine because everything we failed to do over the last 22 years taught him. . He covered the the Catholic Churchs sexual abuse scandal and wrote the bestselling book Our Fathers, which was turned into a Showtime movie. 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. The activists dont know where she is, but, according to France, Theyve been told shes alive.. They talk about their injuries and show us bruises that havent yet healed. Welcome to Chechnya is a terrifying documentary about the gay purges happening in Chechnya, Russia. [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]. Patricia Thomson is a longtime film journalist and contributing writer for American Cinematographer. 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. 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. What made the time right for the documentary to be released now? So last century. France even had a decoy phone with proof: downloaded soccer-fan photos and videos, stats about the Egyptian team, vistas with his tour guides. In Russia, this equipment needs certain certifications and permissions. from Anya, a 21-year-old threatened by her uncle to have intercourse with him, or he'll reveal her homosexuality to her father, a high-ranking official . Their cover story is that Anya is meeting two family friends who are taking her dress-shopping. Will a documentary that expressly embraces the technique help matters? And this changes nothing. June 30, 2020. (Courtesy of HBO) "Welcome to Chechnya" premieres Tuesday on HBO. The film premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival,[8] and screened at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival. 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+ . Her uncles threatening to out her unless she has sex with him, and given the high-profile family connections Isteev and Baranova have even less time and resources than usual to sneak her out of the country. Everybody understood that this needed to be exposed, France said. Because they are still in safe houses, and they are still pursuing this suitTheres no telling how long that battles going to last, but theyre in it for the long run., Lapunov was able to feel some of that support when he traveled to the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year for the docs premiere. Deepfake Technology Enters the Documentary World. The Network helps him move to an undisclosed location in Europe with his boyfriend of 10 years. And while there initially isn't much background on the two fugitive subjects the 30-year-old "Grisha" and the 21-year-old Muslim lesbian "Anya" you quickly understand why. "Welcome to Chechnya" es un urgente documental que destaca a valientes activistas rescatando a personas gay del exterminio en Chechenia. 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. It was very cumbersome, but necessary to keep my end of the promise, France said. They are tough. Sign up for our daily Hollywood newsletter and never miss a story. Courtroom porn and social media have turned innocent bystanders into a mass of mudslingers. Sign Up Now Welcome to Chechnya (HBO) Genres original, documentary Runtime 1 hr 47 min Release Year 2020 About This Movie Anya decides to escape, but that isn't so easy with the authorities soon hot on her trail. [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. From the start, a disclaimer states that certain subjects have been digitally disguised for their safety. Instead of masking or blurring their faces, theyre replaced digitally with a different face but the replacement images carry all the emotion of the victims. To avoid exposing their work, it was shot in secret, using hidden cameras, cell phones, GoPros, and handycams. 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. When we learned of that footage, it was shocking, France said. Chechen authorities let him go because he is not ethnically Chechen. 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. And also to support Maxim Lapunov and his family in their lawsuit. France is an award-winning journalist who has been a war correspondent in Central America. Those are the stories that have really fascinated me the way that their activists handle these challenges and the specter of death. 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. Post author: Post published: May 11, 2022 Post category: orchard lake united hockey Post comments: famous asian psychologists famous asian psychologists Then come the faces themselves, slightly soft, as they were in Martin Scorseses de-aged The Irishman. Smoking cigarettes, strategizing, looking nervous. I was so involved in the technical work for the months leading up to Sundance that I hadnt stepped back to see the film. Theyre one of Hollywoods brightest starsand most troubled actors. Weve heard historical context, seen horrific trophy videos of assault and murder, and spent time in the secret shelter where queer refugees await visas. 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). From Academy Award-nominated director David France (How to Survive a Plague, The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson) comes Welcome to Chechnya, a powerful and eye-opening documentary about a. 21 . 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. Their visual information was married on a deep-learning level with the Chechen footage. Despite this, she managed to capture all the essentials. 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. After ineffective attempts at funding Chechen opposition groups, a Russian invasion began on December 11, 1994. Another substitute face, this time of Joy A. Tomchin, was also used to disguise one of the Chechens in the film. Anya's story is one of the main threads. 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