Best Of: Fighting for free press in Russia / ‘Fear and Fury’
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Over the years at NPR's Fresh Air, we've gotten to talk with a lot of great filmmakers. Now we've made a playlist of some of our favorites, including Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Ava DuVernay, Mel Brooks, Spike Lee, Werner Herzog, and others. Find all our new playlists and more at freshairplus at plus.npr.org slash freshair.
From WHYY in Philadelphia, this is Fresh Air Weekend. I'm Tanya Mosley. Today, filmmaker Julia Laktiv. Her latest documentary follows independent Russian journalists in the months leading up to, and just after, Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The film has arrived in the U.S. at a moment when questions about press freedom feel newly present.
Every day it feels like there is something to bring the story home for Americans, where it almost feels like there's Easter eggs in the film that become more and more relevant every day.
Also, historian Heather Ann Thompson revisits a 1984 New York City subway shooting when Bernard Goetz, a white man, shot four black teenagers. In the days that followed, Goetz became a hometown hero.
Up will become down, down will become up. And that also felt very, very familiar to where we are today.
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This is Fresh Air Weekend. I'm Tanya Mosley. Four years ago, documentary filmmaker Julia Laktiv landed in Moscow to investigate the revival of an old Kremlin weapon, the label Foreign Agent, a phrase with deep roots in Soviet-era repression. It was being applied not only to organizations, but to reporters, bloggers, and human rights groups that had spent decades documenting political persecution. Armed with an iPhone, Lakhtov embedded herself among a group of young journalists working for TV Rain, Russia's last independent television channel, as well as other independent journalists who were deemed foreign agents. The result is My Undesirable Friends, Part One, Last Air in Moscow, a five-and-a-half-hour documentary that has swept major critics' awards and stand as a record of what it looks like when dissent is slowly criminalized in real time.
Here's Julia Lochtev describing how she first entered that world.
The world you're about to see no longer exists. None of us knew what was about to happen. Four months before Russia started a full-scale war in Ukraine, I came to Moscow to make a film with my friend Anya. Anya was a host at TV Rain, Russia's last remaining independent news channel.
What insights does Julia Loktev provide about press freedom in Russia?
In the fall of 2021, it was still allowed to operate online, which is unimaginable now.
By the end of that year, the Kremlin labeled more than 100 individuals and outlets as foreign agents. Those designated were required to stamp government disclaimers on everything they published, even personal social media posts, with penalties that could include steep fines or imprisonment. The film has arrived in the United States at a moment when questions about press freedom and the risks of reporting in politically charged spaces feel newly present here, too. Just last week, journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort were arrested by federal agents after covering a protest at a church in St. Paul, Minnesota, a case that has drawn sharp criticism from press freedom advocates. Julia Lochte was born in Russia and immigrated to the United States at age nine.
Her filmmaking, across documentary and fiction, focuses on people living through history as it unfolds, often capturing private moments inside systems of power that are closing in. Her previous films include Moment of Impact, Day Night, Day Night, and The Loneliest Planet. Julia Lochte, welcome to Fresh Air, and thank you for this film. It is sobering, but...
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–3:20
2
What insights does Julia Loktev provide about press freedom in Russia?
3:20–11:44
3
How did the labeling of journalists as foreign agents impact their work?
11:44–20:29
4
What challenges did independent journalists face during the invasion of Ukraine?
20:29–48:19
Speakers
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