I was recently invited to a private prescreening of David France’s new documentary Welcome to Chechnya. The film focuses on activists working day and night under extreme duress to rescue complete strangers from a violent purge of gay men in Chechnya.
I sat with the director after watching the film, notebook in hand, to give him feedback. But instead I found myself quite unable to speak. And despite my best efforts to maintain professional composure, I sobbed. And sobbed. Instead of our planned discussion, the director found himself looking for tissues, bringing me water, giving me comfort. Later, on the sidewalk, I called a friend, himself a filmmaker. “I guess the film is effective,” he said.
My job is to ensure accurate reporting of human rights abuses. At Human Rights Watch, we are in the business of fact checking and truth telling. And I already knew every gruesome detail of Chechnya’s anti-gay purge of 2017, documented in our own report They Have Long Arms and They Can Find Me, and portrayed so vividly in this remarkable documentary.
