{"id":14334,"date":"2020-06-26T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-06-26T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/?p=14334"},"modified":"2024-03-02T21:19:04","modified_gmt":"2024-03-03T05:19:04","slug":"watch-this-welcome-to-chechnya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/watch-this-welcome-to-chechnya\/","title":{"rendered":"Watch This: Welcome to Chechnya<\/i>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

David France is quickly becoming the go-to filmmaker for excellent LGBTQ activist documentaries. France started his directing career with the Oscar-nominated How to Survive a Plague<\/em>, detailing the AIDS crisis and the story of the activist coalitions ACT UP and TAG in the framework of a thriller. His Netflix documentary The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson<\/em> brought an important story about one of the LGBTQ movement\u2019s frequently overlooked heroes back into the spotlight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

France\u2019s latest, Welcome to Chechnya<\/em> (premiering on HBO and HBO streaming platforms on June 30), is yet another powerful film about the struggle for LGBTQ civil rights. Coming in on the very last day of Pride month, it\u2019s both a hopeful story of courage and community in impossible circumstances, and a stark reminder of how far the world still needs to go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Welcome to Chechnya <\/em>follows the Russian LGBTQ Network, an activist group working to combat the state-sanctioned persecution of Chechnya\u2019s LGBTQ community. Since 2016, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has encouraged the detainment, torture, and execution of the republic\u2019s LGBTQ population. The organization France follows functions as its own underground railroad; the network\u2019s leader, David Isteev, and his colleagues take calls from endangered Chechens, put them in safe houses and smuggle them out of the country. France maintains his subjects\u2019 anonymity by using their network-given pseudonyms, as well as face-altering technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Isteev also wants the Russian government to open an investigation into Kadyrov\u2019s \u201cgay purge.\u201d In order to do that, however, he needs a survivor to come forward–something that would mean a lifetime of hiding for the person brave enough to speak up. Hope comes in the form of Welcome to Chechnya\u2019s<\/em> other main character, Maxim Lapunov (initially introduced as \u201cGrisha\u201d), a gay Russian man who was detained and tortured while working in Chechnya. France switches focus between the Russian LGBTQ Network\u2019s efforts and the story of Maxim, his family, and his husband as they weather the fallout of Maxim\u2019s decision to go public. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Much like How to Survive a Plague<\/em>, Welcome to Chechnya<\/em> often feels like a pulse-pounding thriller. Unlike France\u2019s previous films, however, this one documents an ongoing situation, with an outcome we don\u2019t yet know. This makes Welcome to Chechnya<\/em> a harrowing watch. It\u2019s worth knowing that there are numerous triggers, including torture and self-harm. It\u2019s all necessary to communicate the importance of the situation France is documenting, but it can be difficult to sit through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regardless, Welcome to Chechnya<\/em> is a powerful piece of filmmaking journalism. As heavy as France\u2019s film is (and it is very heavy), showing the suffering of others isn\u2019t his only goal. More important to Welcome to Chechnya <\/em>is the depiction of its activist heroes, people so dedicated to helping others that it\u2019s almost hard to believe they\u2019re real. Lapunov, Isteev, and the rest of the film\u2019s subjects are so brave and selfless that they make you want to drop everything and take action. That\u2019s ultimately the point of the film–not just to show the darkness in the world, but to show how far people are willing to go to bring in the light. \"\"\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“<\/em>Welcome to Chechnya<\/em>“ premieres on HBO and its associated apps on June 30. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

David France is quickly becoming the go-to filmmaker for excellent LGBTQ activist documentaries. France started his directing career with the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":577,"featured_media":14337,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[340,1381],"tags":[1098,162,1425],"class_list":["post-14334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","category-movies","tag-movie-review","tag-movies","tag-watch-this"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/577"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14334"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22796,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14334\/revisions\/22796"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}