On Welcome to Chechnya, VFX producer Ryan Laney introduced game-changing tools with huge implications for the future of documentary filmmaking.Directed by David France, the HBO film spotlights anti-gay purges transpiring in Chechnya in the late 2010s, following LGBT refugees as they make their way out of Russia, with the help of a network of activists.In telling this story, France would have to address a pair of almost paradoxical drives.
Because he wanted viewers to invest themselves, emotionally, in the stories of survivors, he knew he needed to give the doc a human face.
At the same time, he realized early on that he would have to develop a method of disguise, which would protect the identities of his vulnerable subjects.Ultimately,