Saturday, February 14, 2009

Sundance Films: 211: Anna

Title: 211: Anna
Director: Paolo Serbandini, Giovanna Massimetti
Website: No website found
Potential Major Release Date: No known release date beyond Sundance

Summary: Witness journalist Anna Politkovskaya's austere approach to covering stories such as the Chechen War and Beslan school hostage crisis. Politkovskaya's 2006 assassination earned her place no. 211 on the Russian Union of Journalists record of members killed in Russia since 1991, but her highly lauded work lives on in this documentary that features interviews with her children, spouse and newspaper colleagues (NetFlix).

Thoughts: Whether 211: Anna is ultimately good or not, I have to hand it to these two directors for finding easily one of the coolest and scariest stories I've ever heard. I also want to be on the marketing team for this picture. With no release date, trailer or promotional website, I'd have the perfect opportunity to go viral with this campaign. I'd start by putting some clips from the film on a bunch of blank DVDs and leave them in an old box at various film conventions with a sign that reads "the truth has its price." Then I'd follow that up with a website listing the names of all 211 journalists killed over in Russia since 1991. Not only would it get attention, it would also keep the Russian Mob from knowing I'm connected to the film- because I'm fairly certain they would love to "take care of" anyone associated with this documentary. I'm only half joking.

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