The Producers
Vera Krichevskaya - Director and Producer
Vera Krichevskaya is the co-Founder of TV Dozhd (TV Rain) Russia, the only independent private TV Channel in Russia.
She is also an award-winning TV Director, having worked for NTV Channel and 24DOC TV Channel in both senior producer and director roles.
Making The Film
Director’s Statement
Dozhd TV is the last and only independent news TV station in Russia that managed to survived Putin’s regime at least by now, December 2021.
I decided to make this film in May 2019 when the company, Dozhd TV, was in inch away from its death. I was the second person to join Dozhd' in 2008, full of optimism and naivety, as the person one – Natasha, the protagonist of the film. She managed to save her optimism up to 2019, I lost it completely during my journey. The death of the company, of our dream about an independent television in Russia, should have become the central story of the future film.
But as always with a documentary film you never know what the end of your story would be.
The story of “F@ck This Job” is a life journey – mine, [and] Natasha’s — the main protagonist of the film. It is a journey of all of us from this small but strong independent news TV station in Putin’s Russia. It’s also the journey of the country from a state of semi-freedom to full isolation.
For me, it is a story of journalists who have a sense of self-respect, an understanding of their profession, and faith that Russia will be free one day. “F@ck This Job” is a tapestry of our fates and lives, multiple failures, and restarts — both on and off the camera. I hope I could make a fairy-tale of independent journalism.
There were two big driving points that drew me deeper and deeper into the story. The first one is an arc of the country, Russia. In 2008, I found my characters full of optimism and plans for their future. They were the owners of their life. The change of the country and the change of Russia’s arc began to change the characters. Step by step, the people who had never voted in elections, who were extremely apolitical, started to understand that they were losing their lives, opportunities, plans, and dreams. In one moment, we meet our characters at a rally, and later behind bars. The change of the country shapes the change of the people, who in such a dark time, found themselves [anew], strong, and devoted.
I believe this film can strike the beauty of values and principles of this profession. The mission of journalism is to show injustice — I want the audience to get a sense of [that].
- Vera Krichevskaya, Director