Documenting the Siege of Mariupol (re-release)

The FRONTLINE Dispatch

GBH

News

4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 30 November 2023

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

20 Days in Mariupol is an unflinching, first-hand account of the early days of Russia’s invasion of the port city of Mariupol, which remains under Russian occupation to this day.

Ukrainian-born director and journalist Mstyslav Chernov and his colleagues from the Associated Press were the last international journalists to remain in Mariupol as Russian troops attacked. His new film, from FRONTLINE and the AP, draws on Chernov’s news dispatches and his reflections as he documented the devastation of his home country for the world to see.

Chernov sat down with FRONTLINE editor-in-chief and executive producer Raney Aronson-Rath and editor and producer Michelle Mizner in February 2023, as we marked the grim anniversary of the war in Ukraine.

In this episode of The FRONTLINE Dispatch, recorded at the Boston Public Library, Chernov recounts the decision to go to Mariupol, how he and Mizner created a documentary feature from his Pulitzer Prize-winning journalism, and what he hopes people will take away from the film — today, and in years to come.

“I know that we form our understanding of the current events of the world around us by watching news and consuming news,” Chernov said. “ But [we] form our understanding of our past with documentary films… Film is a medium which carries meaning across time, for generations to come.”

An earlier version of this episode was published in July.

You can watch 20 Days in Mariupol on FRONTLINE’s website, FRONTLINE’s YouTube Channel, the PBS App, and the PBS Documentaries Prime Video Channel.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	20 Days in Marry U-Pole is a new documentary feature from Frontline and the Associated Press.
0:07.0	Last February, I hosted an in-person recording of the Dispatch at the Boston Public Library.
0:13.0	I was joined by 20 Days in Marry U Pull Director,
0:16.0	Mrs. Love Sharonov,
0:18.0	and producer and editor, Michelle Meisner.
0:21.0	As the documentary opens to a wider audience on PBS and streaming platforms nationwide,
0:27.0	I wanted to revisit the conversation.
0:30.0	I'm Rainey Aronson Roth, editor-in-chief and executive producer of Frontline, and this is the Frontline Dispatch.
0:37.0	The Frontline Dispatch is made possible by the Abrams Foundation
0:47.0	committed to excellence in journalism and by the Frontline Journalism Fund
0:51.0	with major support from John and Joanne Hagler.
0:55.0	Support for Frontline Dispatch comes from the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center
0:59.0	dedicated to providing the latest therapies and cancer specialists who are experienced in your cancer.
1:04.1	When you hear the word cancer, their team is ready.
1:06.8	Learn more at mass general.org.
1:09.4	We're so pleased to be here at the BPL to talk about our documentary 20 days in
1:15.7	Marryupole that we produced alongside the Associated Press. We have with us AP
1:21.5	reporter Mrs. Salz-Cab, who directed and filmed this documentary.
1:25.8	We're also joined by Michelle Meisner, the talented frontline editor, who helped turn this
1:30.7	reporting into the unforgettable documentary that it is.
1:34.0	20 days in Marryupole.
1:36.0	It is an unflinching account of the Russian siege of the Port City of Marryupole,
	...

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