New Documentary Cloaks Anonymous Sources in ‘Face Doubles’

 | 
01/25/2020

In documentaries, anonymous sources have often been reduced to a shadowy, voice-distorted figure — or worse, a pixelated blur. But a new documentary premiering Sunday at the Sundance Film Festival has, with the aid of advanced digital technology, gone to greater lengths to preserve the secrecy of its sources while still conveying their humanity. “Welcome to Chechnya,” directed by David France, is about an underground pipeline created to rescue LGBTQ Chechens from the Russian republic where the government has for several years waged a crackdown on gays. In the predominantly Muslim region in southern Russia ruled by strongman Ramzan Kadyrov, LGBTQ Chechens have been detained, tortured and killed. France, the filmmaker behind “How to Survive a Plague” and “The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson,” worked in secrecy with the Russian LGBT Network, a group formed to help save gay Chechens and find them asylum abroad. But France had a dilemma. He couldn’t reveal the identities, or the faces, of his main characters. Their lives depended on staying anonymous.

Regions: ,

Share this:

Latest Global News

Added on: 12/03/2023
12/02/2023
The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), an Islamic group, has asked President Bola Tinubu to shun the “LGBT accord which will legalise lesbianism, gay, bisexual …
Added on: 12/03/2023
11/27/2023
The election of right-wing libertarian Javier Milei as Argentina’s president has put LGBTQ+ campaigners on alert in the country, long one of the most …
Added on: 12/03/2023
12/02/2023
Anti-homosexuality laws stop people from accessing lifesaving health services and seriously impede progress on eliminating HIV, a senior UN official has said. Sixty-seven countries …

Explore LGBTQ+ Issues

Other News from ,

Added on: 12/03/2023
Russian security forces have raided gay clubs and bars across Moscow shortly after a ruling by the country’s top court that designated the LGBTQ …
Added on: 12/02/2023
If you’ve followed the debate over treating gender-distressed youth, then you know that evidence-based policy changes, along with general public understanding, often lag the …
Added on: 12/02/2023
With a painted white face and head, wearing an all-white ensemble save for long black gloves and gigantic black platform stiletto boots, Gena Marvin …