By Debra Kaufman
In 2017, newspapers around the world began carrying stories of crimes against the LGBTQ community in Chechnya, a constituent republic of Russia located in the North Caucasus region. Later that year, noted journalist Masha Gessen published a story in The New Yorker that revealed that, despite global political pressure, the Chechen government continued its kidnapping, torture and murder of members of the LGBTQ community but that a small group of activists were clandestinely rescuing individuals at risk and getting them out of the country.
Documentary filmmaker David France (who made the award-winning 2012 movie How to Survive a Plague about the AIDS crisis) read the news reports with growing horror and called Gessen to learn more. Masha put me in contact with the people on the ground and within days I was embedded in the safe house in Russia, filming, he recounts. On his first trip, with a cinematographer, he brought a 4K Sony Handycam which was small enough to look like a tourist's camera. They then left the camera at the safe house so the residents could use it. When we returned to the shelter, we found that people picked up the camera and told their stories in case anything happened to them, says France. They wanted to record their lives and their suffering so something would be left behind. These stories were the spark that grew into the acclaimed documentary Welcome to Chechnya.
When France met the activists and the people they were helping to escape, he made a life-or-death promise to keep their identities safe. During production that meant a tight, secure workflow for getting footage off the cards and onto encrypted hard drives and then overwriting the cards to every trace of the content.
But hiding the identities of the activists and those fleeing persecution was another, more complex security problem. I didn't want to put them deep in shadows or in hoods, says France. I wanted to feel their humanity and see their expressions. As production was wrapping up, France began what became almost a year of R&D and painstaking labor to make good on his promise. I had told everyone we'd render them as cartoons, he says. And we tried out rotomation. But it turned out that this technique amplified their physical characteristics, turning them into easily recognizable caricatures.
France then worked with artists who interpreted the subject's emotions and actions, overlaying that over the footage but, he says, that technique masked their humanity. We tried Snapchat-like technologies to give them dark glasses or masks but that undermined the seriousness, urgency and danger they were encountering, he says. We eventually turned our attention to the idea of transferring one person's face over another. France was leery of using such a deepfake technology but tried to imagine what if it could ethically be used to reveal something real that otherwise could not be conveyed.
After speaking with numerous VFX supervisors, he found Ryan Laney and his partner Johnny Han who believed they could make it work. They came back with a stunning example that showed it would be possible, says France.
Laney noted that what was important to France and his team was to not dehumanize the people in the film. We want to give them a human voice and to keep them safe, he said. David wanted the face replacement to be so good that even their own mothers wouldn't recognize them. When they tested out style transfer (in which, say, Van Gogh's painting style is transferred to a photo of the Golden Gate bridge), Laney said it gave him and Han an understanding of how machine learning could be used to solve the problem.
Next came the code writing, using Google's TensorFlow open-source AI/ML software library. We treated it as if it were a VFX show, says Laney. The style transfer of faces became like a different kind of rendering images, but instead of CG as the result, we were generating a face. In New York, France recruited 23 LGBTQ activists to be the new faces of the Chechen/Russian subjects, shooting them in a bluescreen studio with an array of Panasonic cameras. He made sure to shoot the head in multiple positions and the mouth making every position possible for believable lip-synching.
According to Laney, compositing required a VFX artist to look at every frame to check the fit regarding tracking, color, lighting and anything else. But it wasn't a creative tweak, emphasizes Laney. As an ethical consideration, we constrained it strictly to technical correction. They also placed a soft halo around the face to make it clear that it was a replacement, which was also spelled out in the film's opening. In the first 20 or so shots, we made them very soft so viewers could really see what we were doing and understand the halo, says Laney. When I first saw it work, I got the chills. It was incredible how well the picture matched and the emotion came through, even though it's another face.
France also made sure that anything that identified the subjects was removed, including clothing and jewelry as well as kitchen and bathroom products in safe houses outside of Russia. In the process of obtaining informed consent from the interviewees, Laney reports that one subject said watching it helped him process his experience because it was like watching someone else go through it.
According to France, who is currently working on a documentary on COVID-19, screenings of Welcome to Chechnya on Capitol Hill and in the U.K. and Europe provided the evidence needed to prompt sanctions. But the atrocities continue unabated. Laney, whose team processed over 400 shots and over an hour of screen time, is now providing this and related identity protection services, most recently employed in director Jennifer Ngo's Faceless, a film about the pro-d
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
02/05/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
01/04/2026
January 4 2026, 18:00 (PST) DOLBY AND DOUYIN EMPOWER THE NEXT GENERATON OF CREATORS WITH DOLBY VISION
Douyin Users Can Now Create And Share Videos With Stun...
19/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/03/2026
How Chris Bolte Builds the Sound of PlayStation Games Chris Bolte '16 is a technical sound designer at Sucker Punch Productions, where he helps create the...
18/03/2026
Newly named chief product officer (CPO), Larissa G rner Meeus will return to Net Insight on May 4.
Larissa G rner Meeus will become CPO of Net Insight on May 4...
18/03/2026
SVG Europe's The Football Summit 2026 explored how the sports broadcasting i...
18/03/2026
The 2026 NAB Show kicks off one month from today and SVG is once again set to cover the show from every angle. SVG's SportsTech@NAB Show Blog is now live - ...
18/03/2026
(L-R) The cast and crew of Dead Lover at The Ray Theater for its premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. (Photo by Robin Marshall/Shutterstock for Sundan...
18/03/2026
Yamaha C7 captured in Nashville
Wiltone Productions have announced the release of Music Row Piano, a deeply sampled Yamaha C7 piano library that's been ...
18/03/2026
Bass-enhancement plug-in upgraded
Along with a steady stream of new releases, Techivation have recently been revisiting some of the older plug-ins in their ...
18/03/2026
Mix-reference plug-in overhauled
iZotope's powerful mix-referencing plug-in has just reached its third major version, and now boasts a new capture proce...
18/03/2026
Latest EZKeys 2 expansion arrives
Toontrack's staggering collection of EZKeys 2 expansions has grown once again, and the latest instalment delivers a on...
18/03/2026
Jess Ho explores the politics of food in new SBS Audio podcast For The Culture
18 March, 2026
Media releases
New SBS Audio podcast For The Culture, hosted ...
18/03/2026
Future-ready broadcasts with ATSC 3.0 and enhanced services from Rohde & Schwarz...
18/03/2026
London Calling - When The Industry Convened to Help Streaming Find its MoJo In this blog, Laura Rognoni reflects on key discussions from the Connected TV World...
18/03/2026
SMPTE Unveils 2026 NAB Show Educational Presentations
Brie Clayton March 18, 2026
0 Comments
SMPTE , the home of media professionals, technologists, a...
18/03/2026
Auditel Ad Campaign Shot on Blackmagic PYXIS 12K
Brie Clayton March 18, 2026
0 Comments
LED wall virtual production blends 12K open gate acquisition w...
18/03/2026
Brainstorm transforms productivity and sustainability with Suite 7 at NAB Show 2...
18/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
18/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
18/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
18/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
18/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
18/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
18/03/2026
SMPTE , the home of media professionals, technologists, and engineers, today unveiled its educational presentations for the 2026 NAB Show. This year SMPTE will ...
18/03/2026
Maxon, maker of powerful, approachable software solutions for creators working in 2D and 3D design, motion graphics, visual effects, gaming, and more, today ann...
18/03/2026
Digital Alert Systems
Preview
2026 NAB Show
April 19 - 22
Booth C3452
At the 2026 NAB Show, Digital Alert Systems will showcase Version 6.0 of its DASDEC ...
18/03/2026
Setplex today announced that it will showcase its complete, fully integrated Zapflex platform for the first time at the 2026 NAB Show, introducing powerful new ...
18/03/2026
THIS ANNOUNCEMENT RELATES TO THE DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION THAT QUALIFIED OR MAY HAVE QUALIFIED AS INSIDE INFORMATION WITHIN THE MEANING OF ARTICLE 7(1) OF THE ...
18/03/2026
COW Jobs: Seeking DP for Low Budget Dramedy - Chicago
Brie Clayton March 17, 2026
0 Comments
Seeking Director of Photography for Low Budget Dramedy Fe...
18/03/2026
COW Jobs: Seeking Gaffer for Low Budget Dramedy - Chicago
Brie Clayton March 17, 2026
0 Comments
Seeking Gaffer for Low Budget Dramedy Feature Film- I...
18/03/2026
COW Jobs: Seeking Location, Sound for Low Budget Dramedy - Chicago
Brie Clayton March 17, 2026
0 Comments
Seeking Location/Sound for Low Budget Dramed...
18/03/2026
COW Jobs: Seeking Child Wrangler for Low Budget Film - Chicago
Brie Clayton March 17, 2026
0 Comments
Seeking Child Wrangler for Low Budget Dramedy Fe...
18/03/2026
Calrec Redefines Broadcast Workflows at NAB 2026 with its Most Powerful Hardware...
18/03/2026
Oscar Nominated Two People Exchanging Saliva Posted with DaVinci Resolve Studio
Brie Clayton March 17, 2026
0 Comments
DaVinci Resolve Studio handle...
18/03/2026
Boston Conservatory Presents Celebrated Musical Satire Urinetown Performances for this Center Stage production will take place at Boston Conservatory Theater ...
18/03/2026
Charlie Puth Joins Switched on Pop at Berklee NYC The Berklee alum spoke with host and Berklee NYC professor Charlie Harding for a live taping, answering audi...
18/03/2026
X-Rite Pantone Demonstrates Advanced Color Management Solutions to Support Smart...
18/03/2026
Wednesday 18 March 2026
BAFTA winner James McAvoy to star in Sky Original serie...
18/03/2026
Wednesday 18 March 2026
Sky Sports and Zuffa Boxing announce multi-year agreement for the UK and Ireland
Sky Sports and Zuffa Boxing have announced a new mult...
18/03/2026
Wednesday 18 March 2026
Sky Unveils Poster and Trailer for Original Feature Fil...
By Debra Kaufman
