{"id":839883,"date":"2026-03-21T04:06:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T04:06:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/839883\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T04:06:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T04:06:17","slug":"mr-nobody-against-putin-director-lines-up-work-with-pbs-secret-doc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/839883\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Mr Nobody Against Putin’ Director Lines Up Work With PBS, Secret Doc"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tEarlier this week, American director David Borenstein<\/a> was supposed to pitch his next project at CPH:DOX<\/a>\u2019s prestigious Forum platform. He had to pull out at the last minute, however, but for a very good reason: just five days before, the director\u2019s life and career changed dramatically when he won the Oscar for Best Documentary for \u201cMr Nobody Against Putin<\/a>,\u201d which he directed with Pavel Talankin.<\/p>\n

\n\tSpeaking with Variety while packing his suitcase to fly home to Copenhagen from Los Angeles, Borenstein says he can\u2019t yet share details about \u201cLiving in Our Heads,\u201d the next feature he is working on with \u201cMr Nobody Against Putin\u201d producer Helle Faber at Made in Copenhagen. What he can say, however, is that his experience with his now Oscar-winning doc will undoubtedly shape his next work.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOne thing I learned from \u2018Mr Nobody Against Putin\u2019 is the benefit of having a co-director and opening yourself up to working with someone else, including someone you wouldn\u2019t necessarily think to make a documentary with,\u201d he adds. \u201cIf you had told me I would direct a film with a Russian school teacher from a town of 8,000 people, I would not have immediately believed you, but what Pasha gave to this project was everything. He was unbelievable.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBorenstein says the project will \u201ccontinue to be an interesting collaboration with someone, and we are going to use this collaboration to create an interesting film language.\u201d He adds that \u201cthere is going to be a voice that I help write in the middle of the film that is a very unexpected perspective, or I hope it is an unexpected perspective, on a big geopolitical topic. I am interested in mixing tones still and approaching projects with an unexpected angle, like we did with Pasha. That is all I can say.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe director notes how the films he loved the most over the last year, including Geeta Gandbhir\u2019s \u201cThe Perfect Neighbor\u201d and Mstyslav Chernov\u2019s \u201c2000 Meters to Andriivka,\u201d \u201call play with the idea of this new era where there are cameras everywhere and the ubiquity of the image.\u201d \u201cI\u2019m feeling very inspired by my film and those of my colleagues this year, and thinking about them when looking at future projects.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\u201cMr Nobody Against Putin,\u201d courtesy of Frantisek Svatos<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Frantisek Svatos<\/p>\n

\n\tFaber points out she can already feel a shift in the level of interest in the project following the Oscar win. \u201cWhen you have the right project, everyone wants to be a part of it, but, of course, now that we can brag about this little golden man, I think more interest will come our way for the next project.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBesides interest from the industry, what other advantages does Faber see in the Oscar spotlight? \u201cI think it\u2019s going to be much easier to get people to talk to David,\u201d she says. \u201cFor the next project, we really need to get through to some important people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cNow that people can see how David, I, and our production company have worked with Pasha, it makes them come forward because we really take care of people in our films,\u201d she goes on. \u201cWe make them stand out. It\u2019s more a question about getting access to the people we want and need for our next project, but I am hoping it will be easier.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBut the major platform of the Oscars also brings another level of exposition, which is not always beneficial for a documentary director trying to move stealthily and precisely. Asked how this might affect his process, Borenstein says that, for years, his work has been defined by \u201cgetting access, being on the ground, and working my way into interesting institutions.\u201d \u201cI do wonder if the loss of some of that anonymity has to make me think about how to go about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAlthough Borenstein can\u2019t reveal much about \u201cLiving in Our Heads,\u201d he can confirm his immediate next project is working with \u2014 and supporting \u2014 American broadcaster PBS. \u201cWe are still financing my next project in Denmark and the public system in Europe has been really good to me, but I think PBS is absolutely crucial for America,\u201d he says. \u201cI am in dismay about what\u2019s happened to it over the last year during this Trump administration. I would like to support PBS however I can now.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI will continue my years-long collaboration with the science program Nova on PBS,\u201d he reveals. \u201cI love this work because it informs people in America, reaches schoolchildren, and has democratic values within it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs for Faber, on top of working with Borenstein on a new collaboration, the producer is enjoying being done with the madness of the Oscars campaign and being able to look ahead at what she might want to tackle next. \u201cRight now, I\u2019m trying to build up a new slate of development projects and working on a very big documentary series I can\u2019t talk too much about yet,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s a good time now to come forward with strong projects, but I told myself that, after \u2018Mr Nobody Against Putin,\u2019 I am going to be very picky, because I would rather work on fewer projects and have them be the right ones.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Earlier this week, American director David Borenstein was supposed to pitch his next project at CPH:DOX\u2019s prestigious Forum…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":839884,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3935],"tags":[240386,228479,64843,77,3943,240387,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-839883","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-cphdox","9":"tag-david-borenstein","10":"tag-documentaries-to-watch","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-movies","13":"tag-mr-nobody-against-putin","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116265195107231651","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=839883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/839884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=839883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=839883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=839883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}