The Rory Peck Awards 2001
sponsored by Sony

The Freelancers' Choice

This Award is for the person who has made an outstanding contribution to the work of freelancers - the unsung hero or heroine in the field or at base. The Award has been chosen by the freelancers themselves entirely from their own nominations.

Winner - Raisa Talkhanova
Freelance Camerawoman, Chechnya

In November 1999, Raisa Talkhanova, a freelance journalist, was commissioned by Wilton Films to film the Russian siege of Grozny inside Chechnya. For three months, Chechnya had been effectively isolated by Russia and no footage of the war had been available to broadcasters.

Paul Mitchell of Wilton films says: "The idea was pretty simple: if you can't bring a crew in, then find a competent Chechen who is already there. I asked around in the Chechen émigré community in Paris, and eventually Raisa was recommended. I couldn't talk to her directly. Neither land lines nor cell phones worked. I wrote out a list of what I thought were the necessary sequences, dispatched this by email to Chechens who said they could get it to her, and waited.

My original idea was that she should stay in the besieged capital, Grozny, and record a document of what life was like behind the siege lines. Raisa decided that it was both too dangerous to film and in any case pointless. Everybody in Grozny was sheltering underground. There wasn't anything to film."

Instead, Raisa travelled from her home in Grozny to the outlying villages where much of the population was hiding from Russian assaults. Travelling from village to village and filming, she sheltered with women and children through Russian bombing and helicopter assaults, helping them to collect fuel, food and water. She visited hospitals where emergency surgery was carried out in appalling conditions. On several occasions she filmed only a few hundred metres from the front lines. While in the village of Shali, her male taxi driver refused to stay with her, afraid that the city would be overrun at any minute.

On the 12 December 1999, Raisa crossed from Chechnya into the neighbouring republic of Georgia, a route under constant attack. She smuggled her film past Russian lines travelling only by night to the border crossing. Says Paul Mitchell "I waited there for a week for her to make the trip. I had no way of knowing if she was alive or dead, or what she had filmed. By this time BBC Correspondent had agreed to take the film- if there were a film to take. When she made it we finally met and sat down to view her work. I realised then that she wasn't just brave - she was good."

The resulting film was the first documentary made for Western television by a Chechen journalist. INSIDE CHECHNYA was broadcast as a BBC Correspondent Special for the BBC and then by six other broadcasters. It was the first in-depth report from behind Russian lines in the Chechen War and Iwas a finalist for the EMMY award in News for 2000. In Georgia, Raisa continued to report on the war for the Urartu News Agency. It has now become too dangerous for her to stay in the region and she has been granted political asylum in the USA.

Also nominated for The Freelancers' Choice 2001:

Nick Springate, Producer, BBC News, UK

Nick Springate was the producer working with freelance cameraman Hedley Trigge when they came under siege filming at a white owned farm in Zimbabwe last year. He was nominated for keeping safety a priority and capitalising on the strengths of freelancers. Although the BBC has many contract and staff camera people, Nick uses freelancers whenever possible, and makes sure safety procedures are extended to the whole crew, treating freelancers and staff alike.

Anila Alibali
Press Officer, International Red Cross, Albania

Anila Alibali is a Press Officer for the International Red Cross who campaigns against landmines and helps journalists gain access to information about the use of landmines and their effects in Albania. In a region where foreigners are still seen as suspicious, she has enabled freelance journalists and camerapeople to get into remote areas of the country where access would not otherwise be possible.

• WATCH THE HIGHLIGHTS

• Winners
• Finalists
• The Sony International Impact Award
• The Freelancers' Choice Award
• Broadcasts

• Programme
• From Sony, sponsor of the Rory Peck Awards
• From the Chairman
• The Trust in 2001
• Speech by Chris Cramer, CNN
• Judging Panels
• List of Entrants
• Acknowledgements

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