Short film sheds light on Marc Fogel’s imprisonment
For Marc Fogel, a Butler native, Oakmont resident and international teacher, Thursday, May 9, marks 1,000 days spent behind bars in Russia.
A short film highlighting the impact of his absence and imprisonment on his family and friends will be submitted to film festivals following its screening Wednesday evening.
“Did you Forget Mr. Fogel?” is a documentary created by student filmmakers Max Karpman, Kaylee Smith, Seth Karall and Francesca Hill from Chapman University in Orange County, Calif.
Pre-production for the film began in fall 2023, with the students traveling to Butler County and Pittsburgh to visit Fogel’s family and childhood home.
The film features interviews with Fogel’s sisters, Anne Fogel and Lisa Hyland, his mother, Malphine Fogel, niece and nephew, friends and former students, as well as former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul and Fogel’s lawyer, Sasha Phillips.
Karpman, a senior at Chapman University, attended the Anglo-American School of Moscow for several years, the same international school where Fogel taught history up until his arrest at an airport in August 2021.
Karpman said Fogel had taught his older sister, Masha. Recalling conversations with his sister and other former students of Fogel’s from around the world, Karpman described Fogel as a teacher who fostered curiosity and growth in his students.
“Everybody knew Mr. Fogel as, like, literally the best teacher they possibly ever had,” he said. “He was that teacher everybody wanted to have ... not only was he charismatic and caring and, like, super enthusiastic, but he really, really made high school a place where the students felt like they could, you know, be themselves and learn a lot in a safe space.”
“If I had someone like Mr. Fogel, high school would have been so different for me,” Karpman said. “This is an amazing teacher who has inspired countless students all over the world for over 40 years. He’s done an incredible service for his entire career. Most people will not make that kind of impact in their entire lives.”
Karpman was on vacation with his family when he heard Fogel had been arrested. His sister sent him a news article.
“Honestly, kind of like pretty immediately, my parents were like, ‘Oh, this is not going to end well,’ because my parents are Russian,” he said. “Well, they lived in the Soviet Union. They have seen firsthand how the Soviet Union, how Russia, works and how they operate.”
Karpman said his mother, a marketing manager, and father, a business consultant now based in Seattle, had a feeling Fogel’s arrest would develop into a “big case.” Fogel is one of several U.S. nationals detained in Russia, including Paul Whelan, Evan Gershkovich, Ksenia Khavana and Alsu Kurmasheva.
Fogel has not been designated by the U.S. Department of State as wrongfully detained.
Karpman said he hoped the documentary would shed light on Fogel’s case and who he is as a person.
“A lot of our filming really revolved around the idea of the holidays and how Marc wasn't present with his family during the holidays,” Karpman said. “The first couple of interviews we did with his friends ... then we went to Pittsburgh about a week before Christmas and started filming until right around Christmas Eve. So there we made sure to also film Christmas letters ... to show how they're missing their brother, their uncle, you know, someone who is a mainstay in the family.”
At one point in the documentary, the family is seen in Malphine Fogel’s kitchen, talking with Fogel on speakerphone.
Russian is heard in the background as Fogel asks about his mother, and says “I love you” to his niece, before he tells them the call will end soon.
“It is a very, very intimate film, and it’s very emotional — the reason is when people watch it, they feel connected,” Karpman said.
In the film, Fogel’s 95-year-old mother noted her son has suffered from a back injury that has progressed with age.
He currently suffers from a spinal injury.
Malphine Fogel said in the documentary the health problems may have begun with an injury in peewee football, when Fogel was 12. As years passed and his condition worsened, Fogel was prescribed medical marijuana to help treat the pain. He wanted to avoid taking opiates, Malphine Fogel said.
Following his arrest at Sheremetyevo Airport in 2021, Fogel was charged with “large-scale drugs smuggling” as well as “large-scale illegal storage of drugs without a commercial purpose.” He was carrying about a half ounce of medical marijuana, which was prescribed by a doctor.
Fogel was subsequently sentenced to 14 years in a hard labor prison.
Sasha Phillips, Fogel’s lawyer, spoke in the documentary about his prison sentence, stating he was “set up.”
“Marc got 14 years because he’s an American,” Phillips said in the film. “If Marc (were) Russian, he probably would have gotten half a year probation, maybe up to three years.”
Visiting Butler County and Pittsburgh, the students said meeting Fogel’s family and learning about different parts of his life was rewarding.
“Everywhere we went, you could just feel it — the gravity of the situation,” Karpman said.
“I remember after interviewing (Anne Fogel), we didn’t say a word for about 45 minutes,” he said. “Everything she said was so powerful. She was very vulnerable about how she felt and the reality of the situation. I’ll never forget, as a filmmaker, the power of the subject.”
After submitting the documentary to film festivals, Karpman said he hopes to return to Butler to screen it.
