(Not to be confused with the 2022 Filipino movie with the same title) ''To Russia with Love'' is a 2014 documentary film by

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

director

Noam Gonick Noam Gonick, (born March 20, 1973) is a Canadians, Canadian filmmaker and artist.Ingrid Randoja"Gonzo Gonick" ''Now (newspaper), Now'', May 31, 2021. His films include ''Hey, Happy!'', ''Stryker (2004 film), Stryker'', ''Guy Maddin: Waiting for T ...

."Filmmaker went underground in Putin's Russia to profile LGBT athletes during Olympics"
''

Winnipeg Free Press The ''Winnipeg Free Press'' (or WFP; founded as the ''Manitoba Free Press'') is a daily (excluding Sunday) broadsheet newspaper in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It provides coverage of local, provincial, national, and international news, as well as ...

'', June 22, 2015. Shot in

Sochi Sochi ( rus, Со́чи, p=ˈsotɕɪ, a=Ru-Сочи.ogg) is the largest resort city in Russia. The city is situated on the Sochi River, along the Black Sea in Southern Russia, with a population of 466,078 residents, up to 600,000 residents in ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

during the

2014 Winter Olympics , ''Zharkie. Zimnie. Tvoi'') , nations = 88 , events = 98 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , athletes = 2,873 , opening = 7 February 2014 , closing = 23 February 2014 , opened_by = President Vladimir Putin , cauldron = , stadium = Fisht Olympic ...

, the film centres on the controversial

Russian gay propaganda law The Russian federal law "for the Purpose of Protecting Children from Information Advocating a Denial of Traditional Family Values", also referred to in English-language media as Russia's gay propaganda law or anti-gay law, is a bill that was una ...

, and the ethical dilemmas faced by openly

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

athletes such as

Johnny Weir John Garvin Weir (; born July 2, 1984) is an American figure skater and television commentator. He is a two-time Olympian (representing the United States in the 2006 and 2010 Winter Olympics, respectively), the 2008 World bronze medalist, a t ...

Belle Brockhoff Belle Brockhoff (born 12 January 1993) is an Australian snowboarder, who has represented Australia at the FIS Snowboarding World Championships and the Winter Olympics. She competes in snowboard cross. She competed at the 2022 Winter Olympics, in ...

Anastasia Bucsis Anastasia Bucsis (born 30 April 1989) is a Canadian former speed skater. She competed at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver in the women's 500-metre competition. In addition, she participated in the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics for women's lon ...

and

Blake Skjellerup Blake Skjellerup (born 13 June 1985 in Christchurch, New Zealand) is a short track speed skater who competed for New Zealand at the 2010 Winter Olympics; finishing sixteenth. Sporting career Skjellerup began speed skating at the age of 10 in Ch ...

around whether to speak out against the law while competing in Russia."‘To Russia With Love’: Can Johnny Weir Save Russia’s Gays?"
''

Daily Beast ''The Daily Beast'' is an American news website focused on politics, media, and pop culture. It was founded in 2008. It has been characterized as a "high-end tabloid" by Noah Shachtman, the site's editor-in-chief from 2018 to 2021. In a 20 ...

'', October 29, 2014. The film was narrated by

Jane Lynch Jane Marie Lynch (born July 14, 1960) is an American actress, comedian and author. She is known for starring as Sue Sylvester in the musical comedy series ''Glee'' (2009–2015), which earned her a Primetime Emmy Award. Lynch also gained recogni ...

, and also included interviews with

Billie Jean King Billie Jean King (née Moffitt; born November 22, 1943) is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. King won 39 major titles: 12 in singles, 16 in women's doubles, and 11 in mixed doubles. King was a member of the victorious United States ...

Greg Louganis Gregory Efthimios Louganis (; born January 29, 1960) is an American Olympic diver, LGBT activist, and author who won gold medals at the 1984 and 1988 Summer Olympics on the springboard and platform. He is the only man and the second diver in Ol ...

, Simona Meiler,

Charline Labonté Charline Labonté (born October 15, 1982) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player. Labonté played professionally for the Montreal Stars/Les Canadiennes de Montreal of the Canadian Women's Hockey League. She was a member of the C ...

, Brian Burke,

Mark Tewksbury Mark Roger Tewksbury, (born February 7, 1968) is a Canadian former competitive swimmer. He is best known for winning the gold medal in the 100-metre backstroke at the 1992 Summer Olympics. He also hosted the first season of ''How It's Made'', ...

David Remnick David J. Remnick (born October 29, 1958) is an American journalist, writer and editor. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1994 for his book '' Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire'', and is also the author of ''Resurrection'' and ''King of th ...

Stephen Fry Stephen John Fry (born 24 August 1957) is an English actor, broadcaster, comedian, director and writer. He first came to prominence in the 1980s as one half of the comic double act Fry and Laurie, alongside Hugh Laurie, with the two starring ...

and

Jason Collins Jason Paul Collins (born December 2, 1978) is an American former professional basketball player who was a center for 13 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Stanford Cardinal, where he was ...

. The film premiered on the

Epix Epix (pronounced ''epics'' and stylized as P) is an American premium cable and satellite television network owned by the Epix Entertainment LLC subsidiary of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), a subsidiary of Amazon's MGM Holdings, Inc. The channel's pr ...

cable network in the United States in August 2014. It had its Canadian premiere at the

Inside Out Film and Video Festival Inside may refer to: * Insider, a member of any group of people of limited number and generally restricted access Film * ''Inside'' (1996 film), an American television film directed by Arthur Penn and starring Eric Stoltz * ''Inside'' (2002 f ...

in 2015, and received selected other theatrical screenings before being broadcast by

CBC Television CBC Television (also known as CBC TV) is a Canadian English-language broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster. The network began operations on September 6, 1952. Its French-l ...

. The film received a

GLAAD Media Award The GLAAD Media Award is an accolade bestowed by GLAAD to recognize and honor various branches of the media for their outstanding representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community and the issues that affect their live ...

nomination for Outstanding Documentary at the

26th GLAAD Media Awards The 26th GLAAD Media Awards was the 2015 annual presentation of the GLAAD Media Awards, presented by GLAAD honoring the 2014 season. The awards honored films, television shows, musicians and works of journalism that fairly and accurately represent t ...

."GLAAD Media Awards Nominees Unveiled"
''

Deadline Hollywood ''Deadline Hollywood'', commonly known as ''Deadline'' and also referred to as ''Deadline.com'', is an online news site founded as the news blog ''Deadline Hollywood Daily'' by Nikki Finke in 2006. The site is updated several times a day, with ...

'', January 21, 2015.

References

External links

* 2014 films American documentary television films American LGBT-related television films Canadian documentary television films Canadian LGBT-related television episodes Films directed by Noam Gonick 2014 LGBT-related films Documentary films about LGBT sportspeople Canadian sports documentary films American sports documentary films 2010s English-language films 2010s Canadian films 2010s American films American LGBT-related documentary films Canadian LGBT-related documentary films {{LGBT-documentary-tv-film-stub