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A woman holds a picture of murdered journalist Anna Politkovskaya

Documentaries often show us worlds, places and people which we’ll never experience any other way. The impact might only be an internal one for the viewer and the duration only a fleeting memory of a few hours or days. But there are exceptions.

Two upcoming joiningthedocs.tv films - I.O.U.S.A. and Letter to Anna continue to give recent happenings in the US and Russia the context they sorely deserve in our 24 hour fast-food, empty calorie news diets. First, President Obama seemed to show he has wider viewing habits than his predecessor when on Feb 23 at the Fiscal Summit, Obama asked to hear from David Walker, lead contributor of I.O.U.S.A., on the massive debt issues facing the new administration. Catching it on CNN, or on any other analysis-free syndicated news portal, would have only given you a 45 second summation from the former government financial watchdog on the $11 Trillion debt that Obama must somehow reduce. But those lucky enough to see I.O.U.S.A in the cinema, on DVD, or soon on this very website, would have seen the exchange in much more dire terms, if such a thing is possible.

Walker had resigned from his post due its lack of power in curbing government financial mis-management, the very thing the department was created to guard against. Walker is a product of US political culture, and if someone as knowledgeable and as passionate as he obviously is failed to combat the ingrained self-interest of those the American people entrust to represent them, then just what chance has Obama?

Has the mood changed enough for there to be more than one man who is willing to do the hard long-term thing, rather than the easy, short-term thing?

Meantime, in Russia, a very different kind of political mood had been on display at the trial of four men accused of complicity in the murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya. As detailed in Eric Bergkraut’s Letter to Anna, Politkovskaya’s death in 2006 had been seen by many as a blood-soaked 54th birthday present from the Chechnyan president Ramzan Kadyrov to Vladimir Putin. Silencing the highly vocal opponent of all that is cruel, destructive, humiliating and ultimately de-humanising, might have been expected, but Anna’s death was never going to be something which could be swept under a carpet of intimidation.

And so in such circumstances, either justice is served or justice is fabricated to appease, but on Feb 19, neither occurred for Anna. All four men walked free after they were found not-guilty in two cases which from the very start were claimed by Novaya Gazeta, Anna’s newspaper, to be “very weak”. If this had been an attempted scape-goat operation by the Russian authorities, then it would have made a lousy episode of CSI.

While Letter to Anna is partially a portrait of an incredibly passionate and important figure in Russia’s struggle for justice and dignity, it is also a testament to the cruel, crude, slap-dash repression by a state which feels it can indulge in anything, including genocide, and get away with it.

The rest of the world stands by and watches with detachment, so why should it care about making an exception to truth and justice?

I.O.U.S.A. and Letter to Anna will be available to watch on joiningthedocs.tv soon.

Editor Ben

How Ohio Pulled It Off

Today we’re delighted to announce that we have received a grant from the European Union Media Fund. The funding is to help us build joiningthedocs into the destination documentary site, promoting the best films from Europe and across the world.

We’ve got a whole new team, which you can read about in the About Us section. We are going to be adding new films to the channel every week and adding new functionality to the site.

We want to know more about what you think of us and the films, and we will be telling you more about what we’re up to; watch out for the JTD newsletter which is coming soon.

If you haven’t been on the site for a while, or never before, do check out the films we added just before Christmas. My favourites are the staggering How Ohio Pulled It Off, which will remind you just how much Obama has to do to rebuild America’s democratic reputation, and the quirky and funny Visoko Flying High.

And finally, those eagle-eyed amongst you will notice a slight change to our name. “Dots” has become “docs” - we think it still suggests the same philosophy while making it easier to find on the web.

Enjoy!

Nick