Women Behind The Scenes

Navalny: Producer Odessa Rae on High Stakes Filmmaking

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Episode notes

Odessa Rae is the producer of the Oscar-nominated film ‘Navalny’, a powerful, fly-on-the-wall thriller documentary about the Russian politician who dared to speak out against Putin and survived a targeted assassination attempt as a result.


Odessa's belief in telling stories that need to be heard and her conviction in following her intuition is remarkable. A multi-lingual actor, writer and producer, Odessa and director Daniel Roher travelled to the Black Forest to film with Navalny and his team, sometimes for up to 20 hours a day, in the hopes of providing an intimate glimpse into his inspiring journey.


They also aimed to answer the question, ‘who tried to kill Navalny?’ Eventually, they captured an extraordinary conversation on camera, which went viral overnight and forms the heart of the documentary itself, which is both thrilling and harrowing in equal measure.


‘Navalny’, which has been described as ‘stunning’ (The Guardian) and containing ‘perhaps the most jaw-dropping phone call in the history of cinema’ (Filmspotting) premiered at Sundance in 2022, where it won ‘Best of Fest’ and the coveted ‘Audience Award’ for the US documentary competition.


In this episode Odessa tells us about 


  • following your intuition and taking risks 


  • navigating personal safety and security on a high stakes project



In sharing how she put everything on the line for this documentary, Odessa demonstrates the power of risk taking and trusting your gut in the creative process. 



Please note that there may be some spoilers relating to the film in this episode


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Women Behind the Scenes is hosted by Eloise Singer and produced by Ben Weaver-Hincks for Singer Studios. 


Executive Producers - Eloise Singer and Cathy Anderson 

Production Manager - Hannah Alexander

Post Production - Matt McGuinness

Editing, Mixing and Mastering - Tom Fred Bradshaw [iGame.Audio]

Music - PremiumBeat.com

Production Assistant - Lucy Davidson


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Social Media:


Twitter @singerstudiosuk 

Instagram @singerstudiosuk 

Website: www.singerstudios.co.uk


Odessa Rae:

Instagram: @odxssarae @navalnydoc


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