[Wamvan] new film on Anna Politkovskaya Slain Russian Rights Journalist

[Frieda Werden]

I would dearly love to see this film.  Maybe WAMVan could bring it here?

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: WUNRN ListServe <list at wunrn.com>
Date: Sat, Aug 27, 2011 at 1:01 AM
Subject: Russia - Anna Politkovskaya Slain Rights Journalist - Movie
To: WUNRN_ListServe at lists.wunrn.com


**


WUNRN
http://www.wunrn.com

http://thewip.net/contributors/2011/08/by_alexandra_marie_daniels_usa.html
Website Link Includes Film Segment.


*ANNA POLITKOVSKAYA, SLAIN RUSSIAN RIGHTS JOURNALIST - NEW MOVIE *


<http://thewip.net/contributors/alexandra_marie_daniels.html>****

by Alexandra Marie Daniels

****

* <http://thewip.net/contributors/poster2.html>*****


Someone tried to silence Anna Politkovskaya. An investigative journalist
with a bleeding heart, she was assassinated on October 7, 2006 at age 48 in
her apartment building in ****Moscow****.

****


As expressed in the opening scenes of the new film *A Bitter Taste of
Freedom*, Anna was ****Russia****’s conscience. Despite fear, earlier
assassination attempts and arrests, she exposed the wrongdoings of Russian
authorities and became a voice for the innocent victims of the Chechen war.*
***

* *

Though other films were made about Anna Politkovskaya after her death,* A
Bitter Taste of Freedom* is unique. It is a ‘visual portrait,’ a window into
Anna’s life, created by one of her most intimate friends, Russian filmmaker
Marina Goldovskaya.

****

As part of the International Documentary Association's 15th Annual
DocuWeeks™ Theatrical Documentary
Showcase<http://www.documentary.org/docuweeks2011>I had the
opportunity to sit down with Marina Goldovskaya and discuss their
friendship and her new film. ****

Anna Politkovskaya and her husband Sasha were former students of Goldovskaya
at ****Moscow** **University**** and went on to careers in journalism. In
1991 Goldovskaya made the documentary film *A Taste of Freedom* with the
Politkovsky family as her main characters. Through Anna and Sasha she
created a visual portrait of Russian life.

****

As a documentary filmmaker Goldovskaya's goal is to preserve history. As a
woman experiencing a transformative period in Russian history she did not
hesitate to film every possible moment she could.

****

“With Gorbachev,” Goldovskaya explains, “It was euphoric…Freedom was
something we didn’t know, and we still know very little about…We thought,
this is the beginning of a completely new era…My goal was to make a film to
show the changes, where they are going, and I started shooting.” ****

But Goldovskaya feels that “in order to make a film about a political issue,
it has to be very well-grounded in the reality, in life.”

****

* <http://thewip.net/contributors/Funeral.html>*


*At age 48 Anna Politkovskaya was assassinated in Moscow. Her funeral was
held on October 10, 2006. Photo courtesy of Goldfilms *

**

During the making of *A Taste of Freedom*, Sasha was often away on
assignments and Goldovskaya spent many hours filming conversations with Anna
at the Politkovsky home while she raised her two children. *A Bitter Taste
of Freedom* spans their 20-year friendship.

****

Taking time with her words as she takes time with her coffee, Ms.
Goldovskaya explains “there are people with very thick skin…There are people
with thin skin and there are people without skin…I have a thin skin. I
really take things very close to heart…Anna was a person with no skin at
all.” Deeply affected by what she saw, Anna’s emotions were raw and it was
for this reason that Anna did her work and genuinely did it well.

****

Despite her fear Anna traveled regularly back of forth between **Chechnya**and
****Moscow****. Ms. Goldovskaya recalls a moment in the film. “I especially
loved it when [Anna] says, ‘I go to ****Chechnya****, it’s scary there.’ She
was making investigative journalism.”

****

She explains how Anna disguised herself as a Chechen woman by wearing long
skirts; how despite poor vision, Anna would remove her glasses because
Chechen women did not wear glasses; and how she put a scarf on her head to
hide.

****

“She would go there and talk to people in villages, in private homes, and of
course she never knew what was going to happen. A couple of times she was
arrested by the Federal Russian Guard. She continued to do it, risking her
life, it was a part of her.”

****

Anna became a human rights activist defending the innocent civilians whose
lives were destroyed. “Shocked and traumatized,” she felt she had no choice
but to report on the atrocities of war. The work was dangerous but Anna
never looked back.

****

The chief editor of *Novaya Gazeta*, the newspaper where Anna worked, said
many times “stop going, I am afraid for you;” but Anna maintained an
attitude of “if not me, then who?”

****

Goldovskaya never accompanied Anna on her trips to ****Chechnya**** because
Anna felt it was too dangerous. After she was arrested and had spent a
number of days in a jail cell, Goldovskaya asked her, “Anya, you are doing
such a risky thing...It is so dangerous and she says, ‘Yeah, I know that it
is dangerous but let’s not speak about it…what I am doing, this is what I
have to do.’”

****

* <http://thewip.net/contributors/Anna.html>

*****

*Investigative journalist for Moscow’s liberal Novaya Gazeta, Anna
Politkovskaya was often the only spokesperson for the victims of Putin’s
government. Photo courtesy of Goldfilms** *

**

As a journalist Anna was not able to ignore her responsibility to society.
Russian authorities did not like her reporting from ****Chechnya**** and
there were also colleagues that had very mixed feelings.

****

Dmitry Bykov, a writer interviewed in the film, believed that “her point of
view was deeply affected by what she saw,” and commented that “by virtue of
her passionate female concern for ****Chechnya**** she was losing her
objectivity.” Bykov believed that “a woman cannot remain objective in a war
due to her feminine nature.”

****

Striking me as absurd, I asked Goldovskaya about Bykov’s comment. She
explains “it is a part of Russian patriarchal society, the remnants…an
inescapable part of Russian mentality.” She tells me “Anna Politkovskaya
made many of her colleagues uncomfortable. Her feminine perspective even
disgusted some.”

]****

Despite the conflicting feelings towards her, Anna followed her raw
emotions. She became a voice for the Chechen people - establishing
relationships and becoming someone they could trust. In 2002, Politkovskaya
was asked to be a negotiator during the Nordost theater siege by armed
Chechen rebels. Very sadly, Anna was not able to help. Thirty-nine rebels
along with at least 129 hostages were killed when Russian forces pumped
toxic gas into the theater to end the raid.

****

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev describes Anna in the film as “a
remarkable journalist…because she was a remarkable person.” He explains that
she was strong and ethical and went on to say that “life is always hard for
such people…In her heart and in her mind she wanted to see the country
improved, for the people to feel…confident. And free.”

****

Anna’s conscience propelled Goldovskaya to make *A Bitter Taste of Freedom*;
and through it, she continues to live. After seeing the documentary and
speaking with Marina Goldovskaya I believe we should all ask, “if not me,
then who?”****

*About the Author:**
Alexandra Marie Daniels* is a writer, dancer, and filmmaker. She has made
three films with the director Bernard Rose, including *The Kreutzer
Sonata*(2008) and
*Mr. Nice* (2010) and has worked with the director Martyn Atkins as a script
supervisor on concerts such as *Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood: Live from
Madison Square Garden* and *The Crossroads Guitar Festival 2010*. Alexandra
is The WIP's Arts, Culture, and Media Editor.
_____________________________________________________________________

----- Original Message -----
*From:* WUNRN <wunrn at whathelps.com>
*To:* WUNRN ListServe <WUNRN_ListServe at LISTS.WUNRN.COM>
*Sent:* Wednesday, July 23, 2008 10:22 AM
*Subject:* Anna Politkovskaya - Slain Russian Journalist Rights Defender -
Movie: "Letter to Anna"

WUNRN
http://www.wunrn.com

http://www.starpulse.com/movie/Letter_to_Anna%3A_The_Story_of_Journalist_Politkovskaya%27s_Death/V433938/0/2/

*Letter to Anna: Movie*
*The Story **of Slain Russian **Journalist Anna **Politkovskaya's Death *
**
*Anna Politkovskaya*
Анна Степановна Политковская
**

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Anna_Politkovskaya_byZelenskaya.jpg>****

*Born*

30 August <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_30>
1958<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1958>
(1958-08-30)
New York City <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City>, New
York<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York>,
U.S. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States>****

*Died*

7 October <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_7>
2006<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006>(aged 48)
Moscow <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow>,
Russia<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia>
****

*Occupation*

Journalist <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journalist>****
 **
*Letter to Anna: Movie - Summary*
**
Anna Politkovskaya was a Russian reporter who regularly wrote for Novaya
Gazyeta, one of the country's few independent journals. In a nation where
political corruption is widespread and exposing the misdeeds of the nation's
leaders often has dangerous consequences, Politkovskaya was a fearless voice
whose stories demanded responsibility from Vladimir Putin and his colleagues
while decrying Russia's actions in Chechnya, which she labeled as genocide.
While Politkovskaya writings earned her respect and made her one of the
nation's best known journalists, they also angered many powerful people; she
nearly died after she was poisoned in 2004 while covering the Beslan school
hostage case, and in October 2006 she was shot and killed by an unknown
gunman while riding an elevator in her apartment building; many of her
friends and family believe she was assassinated by government agents.
Filmmaker Eric Bergkraut struck up a friendship with Politkovskaya while
making his documentary Coca: The Dove From Chechnya, and Ein Artikel zu
viel: Der Mord an Anna Politkowskaja (aka Letter To Anna: The Story Of
Journalist Politkovskaya's Death features archival interviews with the late
reporter, as well as contributions from colleagues and loved ones who
discuss her work and offer their views on her suspicious passing. Letter To
Anna received its North American premiere at the 2008 Toronto Hot Docs Film
Festival. Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

______________________________________________________________________

WUNRN
http://www.wunrn.com

http://www.huntalternatives.org/pages/592_anna_politkovskaya_waging_network_member_murdered.cfm

TRIBUTE TO SLAIN RUSSIAN WOMAN JOURNALIST
ANNA POLITKOVSKAYA

*Politkovskaya:  A Life for Justice *
*
*By Swanee Hunt
October 10, 2006

Everyone needs a hero. Anna Politkovskaya was mine. And others’. In addition
to the 2005 Civil Courage Prize, she received the Courage in Journalism
Award from the International Women's Media Foundation in 2002, as well as
prizes from the Overseas Press Club and Amnesty International. In 2004, she
was a joint winner of the Olof Palme Prize for her human rights work.

I met Anna in November, 2000, at Women Waging
Peace<http://www.huntalternatives.org/pages/82_women_waging_peace_network.cfm>,
a network of about 450 leaders within the Initiative for Inclusive
Security<http://www.huntalternatives.org/pages/7_the_initiative_for_inclusive_security.cfm>,
which advocates for the full inclusion of women in peace processes around
the world.  That initiative was incubated at Harvard’s Kennedy School of
Government.  We try to protect and support women peace experts in part by
bringing them to the attention of policy makers at the State Department,
World Bank, White House, and other halls of power.

This past Saturday Anna was executed: shot point blank in the head with a
revolver outside her apartment.  The gun was placed by her side, indicating
a contract-killing. She was 48.

Born in 1958, Anna graduated from ****Moscow** **State**
**University****and worked on the Soviet newspaper
*Izvestiya* for more than a decade.  In 1999, she joined *Novaya Gazeta*,
one of the few newspapers to take on the Kremlin. She maintained a critical
stance against President Putin even as the Russian media became more and
more suppressed by the government. Politkovskaya authored several books,
including *Putin's Russia* and *The Dirty War*.  For more than six years,
she was the strongest voice in the world describing the plight of ****
Chechnya****'s civilian population, under military assault by the Russian
government since 1994.

She told me once that because she was female, she was considered less
threatening and could get behind the lines, where she reported on abuses the
army was perpetrating against Muslim communities under cover of fighting
terrorism. She described how, to avoid a military checkpoint, she’d made her
way down to a river, then trekked through deep snow all night.  Another
time, she posed as a farm wife sitting on a pile of hay in a wagon; she
smiled that without her wire-rims she couldn’t see a thing. Another time she
was apprehended by Russian forces but freed as night fell by a sympathetic
major. In February 2000, the FSB (former KGB) confined her in a pit in ****
Chechnya**** without food or water for three days.

Despite those dangers, like many of the women we have sponsored, Anna
Politkovskaya kept working to expose the injustices around her. Fearless,
but not naïve, she knew her life was on the line as she described the moral
decay of 100,000 security forces, whose abuses only spawn more
terrorism.  Still,
she continued to document *zachistka* ("mop-up"), where young men, or any
others considered suspicious, are rounded up from their homes, sometimes
tortured, and often executed.

Because of her standing with the Chechens, Politkovskaya acted as a mediator
during the Dubrovka Theater siege in ****Moscow**** in October 2002. Russian
special forces put an end to the two-day stand off when they gassed the
theater, killing not only 40 Chechen terrorists but also 129 hostages.  Then
in September 2004, she was in flight to ****Rostov**** to cover the Beslan
school hostage crisis when she lost consciousness after drinking a cup of
tea.  Just before she passed out, a flight attendant whispered to her that
she had been poisoned by Russian agents on the plane. Doctors at the
hospital in ****Rostov**** were ordered to destroy the test results. She
believed the FSB was trying to prevent her from reporting on the siege,
which resulted in 344 deaths, half of them children.  Anna’s suspicions were
well-founded: Since 2000, at least twelve Russian journalists have been
murdered in contract-style killings.

I last saw Anna in December.  She and a small group were discussing the role
of women in the security sector, as protectors of human rights, journalists,
politicians, and leaders of civil society.  They called for women’s
solidarity internationally to ensure peace and stability.  Anna spoke about
freedom of speech and how crucial it is for NGOs to challenge the
government.  Her words then bear the weight of her sacrifice now.

That day I took two pictures of Anna: the first, somber; the second, her
head back, laughing.  I think of those two images of her as we mourn her
murder and celebrate her life.  She understood that with freedom comes
responsibility to work for those denied such freedom.  As we grieve her
death, forty years too soon, we must redouble our efforts and carry forward
her legacy.

*Swanee Hunt, former US ambassador to Austria, is the director of the Women
and Public Policy Program at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and
chair of The Initiative for Inclusive Security.*

 ------------------------------






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Frieda Werden, Series Producer
WINGS: Women's International News Gathering Service www.wings.org
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