David France’s new HBO documentary, “Welcome to Chechnya,” looks at the ongoing campaign to eradicate gay people in the Chechen Republic.
France worked on the ground with activists in Moscow and Chechnya to chronicle the extraction of individuals fleeing the brutal autocracy. To share this footage without putting his subjects in danger, France worked with a team to digitally swap out their faces.
France talks about how he protected himself while making the movie, getting into Russia on a tourist visa, filming on iPhones and GoPros, and even finding a fake Russian girlfriend.