Hillary Clinton, Alongside Yulia Navalnaya, Stresses the Importance of Democracy at ‘Navalny’ Doc Screening in New York
On Thursday night, Hillary Clinton and Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, gathered an intimate crowd for a screening of the “Navalny” documentary at MoMA. The event was held two weeks before the one-year anniversary of Navalny’s death while in Russian custody, and two years since the CNN-produced Oscar-winning film first premiered at Sundance.
Before the screening, guests gathered outside the Celeste Bartos Theater, where Clinton mingled with the crowd. Guests included Patricia Clarkson, Katie Couric, Gina Gershon, Michael Avedon, Alex Lundqvist, and Fern Mallis, along with “Navalny” producers Odessa Rae, Diane Becker, and Melanie Miller, and investigative reporter Christo Grozev, who is featured in the film. Mikhail Baryshnikov, who defected from the Soviet Union fifty years ago, descended the building stairs alongside Navalnaya, and the pair posed for photos next to a poster of the film.
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Inside the movie theater, Clinton told the crowd that she finds Navalny’s story significant, because it serves as a reminder of the importance of standing up for freedom and democracy “everywhere in the world, wherever human rights or freedom or democracy or the rule of law are threatened,” she said.
Clinton and Navalnaya were both at the Munich Security Conference last year when word arrived that Navalny had died while jailed in Russia.
“[Navalnaya] has continued to speak out. She’s continued to make the case for the work that her husband did and why it is still so critically important,” said Clinton. “The fight that Alexei started continues. He reminded us when he was with us that you can’t ever give up and you can’t ever give in, a lesson that I hope all of us take to heart.”
“For me, it’s not just an Oscar-winning documentary,” said Navalnaya, taking the lectern after Clinton. “This documentary became even more important for me to keep Alexei’s legacy, to remind all the world about his fight and to remind all the world how much he did for his beloved country.”
Both women joined the crowd to watch the film, with Clinton departing only as the end credits started to roll. On their way out, guests were left with a few parting words from Navalny himself — nearly 500 pages of them — with a copy of his recent memoir, “Patriot.”
Launch Gallery: Hillary Clinton, Katie Couric, and More the Navalny Screening at the MoMA
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