EXCLUSIVE: A brand new documentary about Christo Grozev, an investigative journalist placed on a Kremlin “kill record” for exposing Russian assassination plots, will make its broadcast debut on Frontline.
The long-running sequence produced by GBH in Boston has struck a deal to air the movie directed by James Jones the evening of Could 6 on PBS stations, in addition to Frontline’s YouTube channel and the PBS Documentaries Prime Video Channel. The documentary will grow to be accessible that very same night (at 7 p.m. Jap/6 p.m. Central) at pbs.org/frontline and thru the PBS App. Previous to the Frontline, Antidote could have a restricted theatrical launch in Los Angeles.
Grozev rose to worldwide prominence by uncovering Kremlin schemes to poison Russian opposition chief Alexei Navalny and Russian British activist and journalist Vladimir Kara-Murza. Whereas that work earned him the sobriquet “rock star investigative journalist,” it didn’t endear Grozev to Russia authorities who slapped him on a “most wished” record in 2023 and allegedly put a community of worldwide spies on his tail with directions to kidnap or kill him.
Director James Jones (left) and investigative journalist Christo Grozev on the 2024 Tribeca Competition on June 7, 2024 in New York Metropolis
Arturo Holmes/Getty Pictures for Tribeca Competition
Jones (On the President’s Orders, Chernobyl: The Misplaced Tapes) focuses his documentary each on Grozev — as he tries to maintain a step or two forward of would-be assassins – in addition to on Evgenia Kara-Murza, the spouse of Vladimir Kara-Murza, as she tries to free her husband from a Russian jail.
“The function documentary lays naked the grave penalties that include talking out in opposition to the Putin regime,” notes a launch, “revealing the threats Grozev, Kara-Murza and their households face as they search to reveal the actions of the Kremlin to the world.”
“I’m so thrilled to be working with Frontline once more, greater than a decade since we made our first movie collectively,” Jones stated in a press release. “Frontline has all the time been the gold normal of documentaries they usually’ve grow to be pioneers of cinematic investigative journalism. At this essential second in historical past we couldn’t have higher companions to work with to deliver this movie to American viewers.”
Frontline earned an Oscar for its 2023 documentary 20 Days in Mariupol, directed by Mstyslav Chernov and over time has gained 108 Emmy Awards and 34 Peabody Awards, amongst quite a few different distinctions.
“We’re proud to share this necessary function documentary with American audiences on Frontline,” stated Raney Aronson-Rath, Frontline’s editor-in-chief and govt producer, “and to proceed providing in-depth journalism on Putin’s Russia on air, on-line and in theaters.”
‘Antidote’
Frontline/Ardour Footage/Bellingcat
Antidote is a Ardour Footage and Bellingcat Manufacturing for Frontline in affiliation with Impression Companions, Channel 4 and M4 Studio. It held its world premiere in March at CPH:DOX in Copenhagen; an earlier iteration of the documentary debuted at Tribeca Competition in New York, the place it gained an award for enhancing.
Antidote is directed and produced by James Jones. The manufacturing govt is Tom Cross; the co-producer is Vivien Jones. Dan Edge is senior producer. The chief producers are Jim and Susan Swartz, Nina and David Fialkow, Maiken Baird, Jens Von Bahr, John Driscoll, Molly and Kevin Efrusy, Jenny Raskin, Geralyn White Dreyfous, Joanna Potts, Nevine Mabro, Louisa Compton, Hamish Fergusson, Andrew Ruhemann, Fiona Stourton, and David Moulton. Co-executive producers are Lauren Haber and Kelsey Koenig.
Journalist Christo Grozev (middle) participates in a panel dialogue at CPH:DOX with moderator Sameer Padania (left) and SVT’s Axel Arnö
Matthew Carey
Deadline spoke with Jones and Grozev at CPH:DOX in March. The Bulgarian-born journalist used a time period related to fundamentalist Iran to explain the Kremlin transfer to hunt him down.
“I referred to as it a fatwa,” Grozev stated. “And I referred to as it that on objective due to that being the closest analogy on the time. As a result of the best way it was introduced by Russia, it had no different pragmatic objective than to make others that wish to ship a favor to Putin, to probably go after me.”
By the point the Kremlin “fatwa” was revealed, Grozev had left his residence in Vienna for the relative security of New York. Now with Donald Trump within the White Home, and in sync with Putin’s Russia, America could now not provide a lot safety.
“Now there’s no query the U.S. isn’t protected anymore,” he informed Deadline. “Every thing, all evaluation of danger, is relative.”
