Latest news with #CPH:DOX
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Bucha massacre documentary wins gold at New York Festivals 2025
A documentary by the Ukrainian service of Radio Liberty about the massacres in Bucha during the Russian occupation has won a gold award at the New York Festivals 2025 television awards. It took the prize in the Human Rights category. Source: Radio Liberty Details: The documentary, How Russian Forces Hunted Down A Ukrainian Shopkeeper In Bucha Bloodbath, is the second part of an investigation by journalist Dmytro Dzhulai into the massacres in Bucha during the Russian occupation in March 2022. It examines the circumstances of the executions and names Russian military personnel who may be involved in the killing of local self-defence member Oleksii Pobihay. The winners were announced on the evening of 22 May in New York during the virtual Storytellers gala. Other laureates this year included Al Jazeera English, Voice of America, ABCTV, PBS, BBC and Deutsche Welle, among others. Background: In March 2025, a documentary by Ukrainian director Mstyslav Chernov, 2000 Meters to Andriivka, won an award at the CPH:DOX documentary film festival in Denmark. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!
Yahoo
06-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
He Exposed Kremlin Assassins, Now Putin Wants Him Dead: ‘Antidote' Explores 'Rock Star Journalist' Christo Grozev
How do you live when Vladimir Putin wants you dead? That's the dilemma facing Christo Grozev, a man often described as a 'rock star investigative journalist.' The story of how he became persona non grata — песона нон грата, if you prefer – with the Kremlin is told in the documentary Antidote, directed by James Jones, which just made its world premiere at CPH:DOX in Copenhagen. More from Deadline Doc Talk Podcast: Oscar Winner Mstyslav Chernov On Being In Oval Office For Trump-Zelensky Showdown, Plus CPH:DOX's Niklas Engstrøm Russia Puts Christo Grozev, Journalist Featured In 'Navalny' Documentary, On 'Wanted' List A Star Is Born In 'Flophouse America': Captivating Mikal Navigates Poverty And His Parents' Drinking In CPH:DOX World Premiere 'Someone asked me the other day, how many people are on Putin's kill list? And I was like, 'I have no idea,'' Jones says as he and Grozev join Deadline at a café at the CPH:DOX hub. 'But it is interesting that if you end up on their criminal wanted list… that's a pretty good sign you've crossed some kind of line.' The line Grozev crossed was to expose the identities of hundreds of Russian spies and would-be assassins operating in the West, as part of his work for Bellingcat, the open-source investigative journalism outfit. He played a key role in Bellingcat's investigation of the 2018 poisoning of Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the U.K., establishing the Kremlin link to the crime. That was mere prelude to his most consequential investigation – identifying the Russian officials behind the near-fatal poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in 2020. No one who has seen the Oscar-winning documentary Navalny can forget the scene where Navalny, recuperated from the poisoning, phones a Russian scientist Grozev has fingered as central to the plot. Impersonating a high-ranking Russian official, Navalny gets the man to admit details of the scheme. Grozev is right there in the room with Navalny as the stunning conversation unfolds. 'It is absolutely the subtext to this film,' Jones observes, 'that moment of humiliating them [the Kremlin]. That target on Christo's back got etched in pen in that moment.' Indeed, it was while he was making appearances for the documentary Navalny on its Oscar run that Grozev learned the Kremlin had declared him a wanted man. 'I called it a fatwa,' the Bulgarian-born journalist tells Deadline. 'And I called it that on purpose because of that being the closest analogy at the time. Because the way it was announced by Russia, it had no other pragmatic purpose than to make others that would like to deliver a favor to Putin, to potentially go after me.' This was no mere idle threat. Grozev was visiting New York in 2023 when U.S. intelligence officials warned him not to return to his home in Vienna, because a 'red team' was anticipating his arrival in Austria with plans to kill or kidnap him. Not long after, authorities in the U.K. got wind of three Bulgarians following Grozev around Europe with the intent to snatch him. Katrin Ivanova, Vanya Gaberova, and Tihomir Ivanov Ivanchev – Bulgarian nationals based in London — were apprehended in February 2023 and charged with espionage. 'There was so much volume of evidence, 200,000 text messages… between the commissioners [of the plot] from Moscow and the spy team, that it took the prosecutors and the police almost a year to go through them,' Grozev notes. 'After the arrest, [investigators] were discovering new things and calling me occasionally, 'Oh, did you know that this happened?' Or 'Where were you on this date?'' Just last month, Ivanova, Gaberova, and Ivanchev were convicted in a British court of conspiracy to spy. 'This was a high-level espionage operation with significant financial rewards for those involved in the spy ring,' said Frank Ferguson, chief of the Crown Prosecution Service Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division. 'The group acted together, under the leadership of [confessed Bulgarian spy] Orlin Roussev, to spy on prominent individuals and locations on behalf of Russia using sophisticated methods.' That plot against Grozev failed, but he may never learn the full circumstances of his father's sudden death in Austria. His body was discovered in his home outside Vienna; cause of death undetermined. Towards the end of shooting on Antidote, Grozev says, 'I was confronted with photos and messages from the spy ring [Ivanova, Gaberova, and Ivanchev and associates] where it became abundantly clear that they had been tasked to surveil my father as well,' he says. 'And there was a photo… of the spies taking a selfie in front of my father's apartment with an arrow pointing to the balcony saying, 'Enter from here.'' There are comedic elements to the spy craft practiced by the Bulgarian conspirators — beyond failing to delete incriminating text messages, that selfie, and other evidence from their phones. 'It was also in a way surreal, almost funny, how we could match their text messages — which were only available to the prosecutors — to public data that they had left, like breadcrumbs,' Grozev observes. 'Some of the spies were leaving Google reviews to the places that they went and complaining about the quality of hotels or cafes or food as they were literally breathing down my neck at the same time.' Moments of levity may help Grozev cope with the ongoing threat to his life. 'It does get normalized after time,' he says. 'So, you no longer are shocked, you're no longer stressed. You can sleep normally.' After Austrian authorities told Grozev they couldn't protect him, he took up residence in New York. That was fine while Biden was president. But with Trump back in office his safety in the U.S. can no longer be taken for granted. 'The new shock comes, which is, well, suddenly the country that gave you asylum and a safe space is now aligning itself with the enemy and is it safe anymore? And what is the next destination?' Of Antidote, he says, 'It's kind of like a fugitive film in a way but involving a journalist.' Grozev now serves as head of investigations for The Insider. At a Q&A following the world premiere of Antidote in Copenhagen, he said he would keep pursuing his investigative work so long as he continued to enjoy the support of his wife and two children. They have backed his journalistic mission despite the grave risk it presents to his wellbeing. At CPH:DOX, the location of the world premiere of Antidote was not disclosed until just before the event. A security measure. 'It is just weird how relative safety is because six months ago I had doubts whether I should be in Copenhagen,' Grozev tells Deadline. 'But now there's no question the U.S. is not safe anymore. Everything, all assessment of risk, is relative.' Best of Deadline '1923' Season 2 Release Schedule: When Do New Episodes Come Out? Everything We Know About 'Nine Perfect Strangers' Season 2 So Far Everything We Know About 'Hacks' Season 4 So Far
The Guardian
02-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Balomania review – those magnificent Brazilians and their flying balloons
An intriguing film set in Brazil, first shown last year at the CPH:DOX documentary festival in Copenhagen, in which expatriate Danish film-maker Sissel Morell Dargis takes a look at a unique grassroots cultural phenomenon: the baloeiros, the ballooners. These are groups of young men, as secretive and loyal to each other as Freemasons, who (illegally) build and release huge decorated balloons in cities, from where they can travel hundreds of miles. Why? As kind of graffiti, or a community self-expression, or situationist artform, or just a subversive gesture of pure joie de vivre that does not need or admit of any explanation. The baloeiros are harassed by the police, on the ostensible grounds that they are part of gang culture, and the authorities encourage local people to inform on those they suspect of building and transporting a balloon. But baloeiros are cheerfully committed to their own kind of public-access artistry. The balloons show colossal images of Sly Stallone and Luciano Pavarotti – aspirational role models and pop culture icons. As Dargis says: 'A flying balloon belongs to everyone, even the police.' Perhaps the authorities' attitude is more irrational and dysfunctional than they will admit; when the police can't catch the criminals, they criminalise the people they can catch. The Brazilian state could be just collectively and spitefully infuriated by a communal activity which exists outside their control and which consumes their attention while serious criminals continue to ply their trade. The ballooners themselves have something of the ethos of surfers and skateboarders – and even the flâneurs of belle époque Paris. It's a way of life, a cultivation of pure pleasure. Balomania is at Bertha DocHouse, London from 4 April.
Yahoo
01-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Doc Talk Podcast: Oscar Winner Mstyslav Chernov On Being In The Oval Office When Trump Berated Zelensky, Plus CPH:DOX's Niklas Engstrøm On Europe's Trump Dilemma
The scene shocked the world: President Donald Trump inviting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the Oval Office on February 28, only to verbally attack him in front of the media and accuse him of fomenting World War III. Vice President J.D. Vance, eager to please his boss, dressed down Zelensky over what he considered his unsuitable attire. It turns out Oscar-winning filmmaker Mstyslav Chernov was in the Oval Office with the Ukrainian leader on that stunning day. He joins the latest edition of Deadline's Doc Talk podcast to share his reaction to the shocking exchange that saw Zelensky ejected from the White House. He says the response by the Ukrainian people to that disrespectful treatment may come as a surprise to Trump and his Veep. More from Deadline 'This Is Going To Be Great Television': Trump Creates Yet Another Shocking Oval Office Moment, But This Time The Stakes Could Not Be Higher Doc Talk Podcast Debates Oscar Results And Travels To The True/False Film Fest A Star Is Born In 'Flophouse America': Captivating Mikal Navigates Poverty And His Parents' Drinking In CPH:DOX World Premiere Chernov, who won the Academy Award a year ago for his documentary 20 Days in Mariupol, tells us about his new film, 2000 Meters to Andriivka, also set in wartime Ukraine. The feature doc, which just won the F:ACT Award at CPH:DOX in Copenhagen, goes into the trenches with Ukrainian soldiers as they try to retake a village seized by Russian invaders. At CPH:DOX we also talk with festival artistic director Niklas Engstrøm, an architect behind CPH:DOX's rise to becoming one of the world's most important nonfiction cinematic showcases. Engstrøm explains how the festival presciently chose human rights as the theme of this year's event months before the U.S. presidential election that returned Trump to office, where the president has made 'power … the only really important thing in international politics,' in Engstrøm's words. He describes the times we're living in as 'scary' and says Europe is reacting with alarm to Trump's efforts to remake the world order – strengthening ties with Russia at the apparent expense of America's NATO allies. Engstrøm characterizes the souring of the relationship between the U.S. and Europe as the end of an 80-year marriage. That's on the new episode of Doc Talk, hosted by Oscar winner John Ridley (12 Years a Slave, Shirley) and Matt Carey, Deadline's documentary editor. The pod is a production of Deadline and Ridley's Nō Studios. Listen to the episode above or on major podcast platforms including Spotify, iHeart and Apple. Best of Deadline 'The White Lotus' Season 3 Release Schedule: When Do New Episodes Arrive On Max? 'The White Lotus' Season 3: Everything We Know About The Cast, Premiere Date & More 2025 TV Series Renewals: Photo Gallery
Yahoo
31-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘How Deep Is Your Love' Review: A Mischievous Documentary Dive Into an Unfamiliar Ecosystem
Around ninety percent of life forms in the deep sea have yet to be named by humans, British director Eleanor Mortimer informs us in the course of her documentary 'How Deep Is Your Love.' It's a statistic somehow comforting in its vagueness — how, after all, can we put an exact figure on what is unknown to us — and humbling in its vastness, a reminder that we still don't own huge stretches of the globe we profess to run. Across history, any number of explorers, scientists and storytellers have been fascinated by the essential, alien hostility of the ocean to our species, and its enduring status as a place we can only visit but never settle. Mortimer joins those ranks with a film that functions both as awestruck spectacle and anxious warning — joining a literal boatload of marine biologists racing to demystify an ecosystem before deep-sea miners destroy it. Having premiered at the True/False documentary festival before making its European bow in CPH:DOX, 'How Deep Is Your Love' is a warm, approachable entry in the growing eco-documentary subgenre that should net considerable distributor interest on the strength of its plaintive environmental message and its frequently dazzling imagery — as Mortimer's filmmaking abets the biologists' mission to capture and chronicle an iridescent array of never-before-seen creatures down below. It's not a doc that goes heavy on hard science, instead embracing its layman's perspective, as Mortimer's own running, conversational voiceover whimsically reflects on her own relative smallness and remove from this strange, silent world. The final effect, roughly akin to Jacques Cousteau fused with Mark Cousins, will bemuse some and beguile many. More from Variety How Do Political Docs Stay Alive in New Trump Era? Key Documentary Players Meet at CPH:DOX to Ponder Alternatives After 'Streamers Went to the Right' 'Tesla Files' Documentary Aims to Expose Inner Workings of Tesla and Question Elon Musk's Political Ambition (EXCLUSIVE) True/False Film Fest Unveils 2025 Lineup Including Eight Sundance Docus (EXCLUSIVE) A stretch of the Pacific Ocean spanning 1,700,000 square miles and administered by the International Seabed Authority (ISA), the Clarion-Clipperton fracture zone is about as remote a location as one can journey to on Earth — at least a 12-day maritime voyage from the nearest land — but a hotspot for oceanographers thanks to the richness and diversity of life on its seafloor. As they head toward its center, and survey the depths of its 'abyssal zone' (over two miles below the water's surface) via state-of-the-art cameras, the mostly British, millennial-aged team of scientists on the vessel joined by Mortimer doesn't feign know-it-all composure in the face of such familiarity: Their wonder is palpable and easily shared as various exotic, amorphous, luridly painted organisms float into view, identified with decidedly non-academic names like 'Psychedelic Elvis Worm' and 'Headless Chicken Monster.' (Officially naming a species, Mortimer learns, can take up to 14 years.) There's something endearing about seeing the scientific world this far out of its depth, in all senses of the term, and Mortimer's interview style disarmingly makes the most of this rare leveling of the scales. 'If you had a chance to meet this arthropod, what would you ask him?' she asks one team member about the small, spindly whatchamacallit under scrutiny, cuing an oddball reverie about taking an underwater invertebrate out on a date. There's room for fantasy in a realm where facts are scarce. But there's work to be done too, much of it bittersweet, and soundtracked to the duly plangent strains of Portishead's 'Glory Box.' These extraordinary species must be captured to be studied — using, in amusingly stark contrast to the technological wizardry of the observational equipment, a mechanical device not unlike an arcade claw grabber — and of course die once brought to the surface. 'I feel a bit like the Nicole Kidman character in 'Paddington,'' grimaces one scientist about the essentially destructive nature of his study — and depending on your perspective, this sense of guilt is either amplified or mitigated by the larger-scale threat posed to the seabed by mining companies intent on extracting the precious mineral resources of the deep. Such industrial excavations risk wiping out untold (and, indeed, as yet unseen) natural wonders, though delegates of the ISA are unable to reach an agreement as to how to curb or monitor them. Back on land, at the organisation's headquarters in Kingston, Jamaica, Mortimer's camera hovers outside stalemate meetings to which she's refused access: the sense of time drifting when there's none to waste is hard to avoid. In a climactic flourish of make-believe, the glowing creatures found on the expedition are airily superimposed on the drab offices and corridors of the ISA building — the film's final, playful but gently pointed reminder that we all share the same planet. Best of Variety The Best Albums of the Decade
