INTERVIEW WITH A DEADMAN – ONLINE PREMIERE & Q&A

INTERVIEW WITH A DEADMAN: Director’s Cut (2020) is the shocking true story of a dissident, Russia’s ‘back-from-the-dead’ journalist Arkady Babchenko. The documentary zooms in on the historic events of the last 25 years in Ukraine, Georgia, Chechnya & Russia through the eyes of Arkady and reveals the dramatic details of the war on journalism escalating in his homeland.

Phil Strongman will introduce the documentary before the screening and will be joined by a Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko & a British journalist Luke Harding to answer your questions once you’ve seen the film.

Please register at Eventbrite:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/

Once you’ve registered, you’ll be sent the details on how to join.

The event is free, but you are welcome to make a voluntary donation of £5 to support the vulnerable groups in Ukraine.

Donations can be made via JustGiving:

donate.justgiving.com

Director: Phil Strongman

Producers: Phil Strongman & Mat Flasque

Music: Sönke Prigge

Run time: 70 min

Languages: English & Russian

Q&A Participants: Phil Strongman, Luke Harding & Arkady Babchenko

You can watch a trailer HERE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ix6jP6cnrkM

Q&A Participants

PHIL STRONGMAN is a London-based film-maker, author and environmentalist. Phil has authored a number of books on counter-culture – Cocaine (1997), Pretty Vacant: A History of UK Punk (2007), Metal Box: Stories from John Lydon’s Public Image Limited (2007), and John Lennon: Life, Times and Assassination (2010) – which have been translated into Swedish, Spanish, Japanese and Croatian. Phil Strongman’s first full-length documentary was ‘Sex Pistols’ Secret History: Dave Goodman Story’ (2006), but his first film to be broadcast in the UK was ‘Anarchy! McLaren Westwood Gang’ (2016), also about the punk movement; the film producer Mike Wearing called it “the Apocalypse Now of art documentaries.” In his third film ‘Kyiv Unbroken’ Phil focused on Ukraine’s post-Maidan contemporary art with a work that captured the energy and spirit of the young artists responsible for the powerful “cultural youth-quake” in Ukraine today. In his subsequent ‘Interview with a Deadman’, Phil chose the dramatic personal story of Arkady Babchenko to reveal tumultuous events in the post-Soviet world, exposing the plight of a journalist in a totalitarian state.

LUKE HARDING is an award-winning journalist, a Guardian foreign correspondent, and bestselling author. He has reported from Delhi, Berlin and Moscow and covered wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya. He was based in Russia for The Guardian from 2007 until, returning from a stay in the UK on 5 February 2011, he was refused re-entry to Russia and deported the same day. The Guardian said his expulsion was linked with his critical articles on Russia, a claim denied by the Russian government. After the reversal of the decision on 9 February and the granting of a short-term visa, Harding chose not to seek a further visa extension. His 2011 book Mafia Mafia State discusses his experience in Russia and the political system under Putin, which he describes as a mafia state. He is also the author of Collusion, A Very Expensive Poison, and The Snowden Files as well as the co-author of WikiLeaks and The Liar (Fourth Estate) the last of which was nominated for the Orwell Prize. Luke’s latest books include Collusion: How Russia Helped Trump Win the White House and Shadow State: Murder, Mayhem and Russia’s Remaking of the West.

ARKADY BABCHENKO is a dissident Russian journalist. From 1995, Babchenko served in the communication corps in the North Caucasus while participating in the First Chechen War. He later volunteered for six months during the Second Chechen War. After leaving the army in 2000 he worked as a war correspondent for more than a decade, including for Moskovskij Komsomolets and Zabytyi Polk. In 2006 he published the book One Soldier’s War, about his experiences in Chechnya. Babchenko condemned war in Georgia and criticised Vladimir Putin’s annexation of Crimea and the war he is waging in south-east Ukraine. Babchenko and his family fled Russia in February 2017. Since 2017 he has worked as a presenter for the Kyiv-based Crimean TV channel ATR. It was reported on 29 May 2018 that Babchenko had been shot dead in his home in Kyiv, Ukraine. The next day, he appeared in person at a press conference. On 4 November 2019, after spending nearly 2 years in a lockdown, Arkady had left Ukraine for an unidentified country due to anxiety over his safety.

We look forward to sharing our virtual space with you!

www.british-ukrainianaid.org