Moderator: Patricia Aufderheide, American University Professor
Filmmakers:
David France, Welcome to Chechnya
Hao Wu, 76 Days
Erika Cohn, Belly of the Beast (will be available on ITVS in November)
Official Description:
All investigative cinema, along with traditional investigative journalism, seeks to expose something that is otherwise hidden from view. Three remarkable films making a splash on this year’s festival circuit and featured in Double Exposure, take the questions of exposure to new heights. For Hao Wu, “exposure” is literally an issue of life or death. His remarkable 76 Days is set in the earliest days of the coronavirus crisis, charting how a Wuhan hospital confronted the new, deadly virus in the city where it originated.
In David France’s Welcome to Chechnya, about a group of activists risking their lives to confront the ongoing anti-LGBTQ persecution in the repressive and closed Russian republic of Chechnya, France must come up with a strategy to keep the identities of his subjects hidden, so as not to expose them to grave risk. He employs radical digital manipulation to guard their identities without losing their humanity, creating substituted digital faces.
In Belly of the Beast, Erika Cohn exposes a previously little-known story about enforced—and illegal—sterilization of female inmates in California’s correctional facilities.
Key Takeaways:
Erika Cohn – Worked as both a documentarian and legal advocate. Had lots of conversations about possible consequences for participants once film got out. The threat of retaliation is very real, so wanted to respect and honor their participants’ wishes. 10 years of silence and secrecy were involved in making this film.
Challenges:
Access
Having to imagine, and reimagine, how audiences would perceive the prison environment, as prisons are outside of many people’s experience - when seen in the media it is typically overly-dramatized. So they recreated prison environments using a dilapidated former prison, advised by formerly incarcerated to recreate an authentic look and feel.
Adequately protecting the identity of interview subjects who wanted to be anonymous. They found that since everyone in the film was already living with constant fear of retaliation for any form of speaking up they could actually advise on how to have these conversations.
Hao Wu – Based in New York, and was originally thinking of a film comparing how New York and Wuhan were dealing with corona virus. He considered smuggling himself into China but was not able to. He contacted filmmakers already working in Wuhan and collaborated with his anonymous co-directors virtually. The political situation became increasingly difficult, and his co-directors had to temporarily drop out. He edited on his own, then reconnected with them to show the rough-cut. One was willing to go public, the other chose to remain anonymous since he was afraid to put his livelihood at risk.
While many forms of internet conversations are easily seen by Chinese authorities, the AI is not good enough to understand video (yet).
In the beginning he thought of it as an investigative piece, but it evolved to a more humanistic look of medical workers and patients trying to survive. This decision allowed him to tell a story not already told, and to walk the fine line between not being seen as too pro or anti-Chinese in these very political and challenging times.
David France – Feels other media has been far too meek in the genocidal campaign against LGBTQ in Chechnya, if they report about it at all. Many have had to flee for their lives and hide in shelters and safe houses. So his team hired security consultants to create security protocols ensuring maximum protection for the subjects.
Challenges –
Not attracting attention with a large crew. Used much smaller gear, and left cameras behind.
Protecting his subjects’ identities when interviewing them in safe houses. They always made sure everyone in the house was aware they were filming so they stay out of the frame if they didn’t want to be seen.
In the end, had 23 interviewees whose identity needed to be hidden. Recruited 23 U.S. activists who served as “face doubles”. New AI technology allows their faces to be superimposed on the interview subjects in a way that maintains all their facial expressions and nuances of their voice. Found that the technology successfully met the highest standards – the subjects’ own mothers did not recognize who it originally was.
Fear of authorities seizing their interviews. Before they even left the shelter, cards were immediately dumped onto encrypted drives. The cards were not just deleted, but overwriten so nothing could be recovered.
Fear of footage being stolen by well-funded state security organization. The key was making sure no footage or data ever touched the internet. They edited in a windowless “air gapped” studio – nothing in the studio was internet connected – a “steel dome” of privacy.
Made sure funders did not reference the film in any of their media.
They received much support from many involved in seeing the film through to completion. They also found it was much more a story about love and caring for one’s fellow human beings than they had originally thought. But after the project was finished, group therapy was still needed to help deal with the secondary trauma of doing justice to these gut-wrenching stories.