Julia Loktev

Julia Loktev is a filmmaker known for her work on 'My Undesirable Friends', while Ksenia Mironova is a Russian independent journalist from TV Rain. They discuss the challenges faced by independent journalists in Russia amid severe crackdowns. Ksenia shares her personal experiences, including the arrest of her partner, shedding light on the tactics used to silence the press. They also reflect on the decision to continue their work in exile and draw parallels between media suppression in Russia and trends emerging in the U.S.

Julia Loktev, filmmaker known for intimate documentaries and director of My Undesirable Friends, follows young Russian journalists under crackdown. She describes filming in Moscow, shooting on an iPhone for closeness. Conversations cover the foreign agent law, choices between exile or prison, surveillance risks, and how community, dark humor and music sustained resistance.

Heather Ann Thompson, Pulitzer-winning historian who wrote Fear and Fury, and Julia Loktev, filmmaker who documented independent Russian journalists, speak candidly. They explore journalism under Russia's crackdown, intimate reporting choices, and the cultural forces behind vigilante violence in 1980s New York. Short, vivid conversations about press freedom, exile, and how fear reshapes public memory.