Student filmmakers screen Marc Fogel documentary
Four broadcast journalism students at Chapman University in California will screen their independent film about Marc Fogel on Wednesday, May 8 in efforts to spread awareness about the detained teacher.
The documentary, created in one year by student filmmakers Max Karpman, Kaylee Smith, Seth Karall and Francesca Hill, is titled “Did You Forget Mr. Fogel” and will be screened at 10 p.m. EST.
Karpman, the director, was born in New Jersey to immigrant parents. His father came to the U.S. from Kyiv in the ‘70s, and his mother immigrated in the ‘90s from Moscow. Karpman spent nine years at the Anglo-American School of Moscow, where Fogel taught before his arrest at Sheremetyevo Airport in August 2021.
Fogel, a Butler native, has been imprisoned in Russia for nearly three years for carrying about a half ounce of marijuana in his luggage, which was prescribed for chronic pain due to a back injury.
“Everyone that went (to the Anglo-American School) knows what happened to Mr. Fogel,” Karpman said. “Unfortunately, I noticed that unless you have some sort of personal connection like I did, nobody would have heard the name Marc Fogel. I see Brittney Griner on the news, Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan, and they're all being talked about, but nobody talks about Marc Fogel.”
“I figured that we have this unique opportunity, because we go to this really fantastic film school with all these resources,” Karpman said. “I think a short documentary could really help raise public awareness.”
The film features interviews with Marc Fogel’s mother, Malphine Fogel, the teacher’s two sisters, as well as friends and colleagues of Marc Fogel’s from around the world, and former U.S. ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul of Stanford University.
As part of the project, the four student filmmakers also traveled to Butler County and Pittsburgh to interview some of their subjects.
“After a shoot, we’d walk around, and it's like, (Marc Fogel) walked these streets,” said Kaylee Smith, documentary producer. “He was here, and now he's maybe not coming back home. Just to be in this place … that is home to him, for us to go there was just such a crazy experience.”
The students said they intend to submit the film to national and international film festivals including Sundance.
The film screening will be streamed live alongside five other student films online at Chapman University’s website.
