Film Screening: The Man Who Was Too Free
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The film will be screened in Russian with English subtitles. Doors will open at 6:00pm.
The life and fate of Boris Nemtsov is inextricably intertwined with the history of Russia over the last 25 years. The film begins in the 1990s, when Nemtsov was seen as a possible future president of the country, and ends in February 2015 with his assassination on Moskvoretsky Bridge across from the Kremlin as an opposition leader. Nemtsov was the only Russian political figure who shone brightly in both the 1990s, with its free press, political infighting and low gas prices, and in the 2000s, a time of stability, economic growth, censorship and the fall of political competition. Director Vera Krichevskaya and journalist Mikhail Fishman have told the full political biography of Boris Nemtsov in this documentary. The most important, pivotal events of Russian history and Nemtsov's role in them are discussed by his friends, colleagues, family members and fellow politicians.
“The Man Who Was Too Free” won the “White Elephant” award from the Russian Guild of Film Critics in the category of “Best Documentary Film of 2016”.
Michael McFaul
Director, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
Professor Michael McFaul, Director of the Freeman Spogli Institute, will introduce the film and answer questions following the screening. McFaul is Professor of Political Science, Director and Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, and the Peter and Helen Bing Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. He joined the Stanford faculty in 1995. He is also an analyst for NBC News and a contributing columnist to The Washington Post. Dr. McFaul served for five years in the Obama administration, first as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Russian and Eurasian Affairs at the National Security Council at the White House (2009-2012), and then as U.S. Ambassador to the Russian Federation (2012-2014).
This event is co-sponsored by the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
and the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law.
Michael A. McFaul
Encina Hall
616 Jane Stanford Way
Stanford, CA 94305-6055
Michael McFaul is the Ken Olivier and Angela Nomellini Professor of International Studies in Political Science, Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, and the Peter and Helen Bing Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, all at Stanford University. He joined the Stanford faculty in 1995 and served as FSI Director from 2015 to 2025. He is also an international affairs analyst for MSNOW.
McFaul served for five years in the Obama administration, first as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Russian and Eurasian Affairs at the National Security Council at the White House (2009-2012), and then as U.S. Ambassador to the Russian Federation (2012-2014).
McFaul has authored ten books and edited several others, including, most recently, Autocrats vs. Democrats: China, Russia, America, and the New Global Disorder, as well as From Cold War to Hot Peace: An American Ambassador in Putin’s Russia, (a New York Times bestseller) Advancing Democracy Abroad: Why We Should, How We Can; and Russia’s Unfinished Revolution: Political Change from Gorbachev to Putin.
He is a recipient of numerous awards, including an honorary PhD from Montana State University; the Order for Merits to Lithuania from President Gitanas Nausea of Lithuania; Order of Merit of Third Degree from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine, and the Dean’s Award for Distinguished Teaching at Stanford University. In 2015, he was the Distinguished Mingde Faculty Fellow at the Stanford Center at Peking University.
McFaul was born and raised in Montana. He received his B.A. in International Relations and Slavic Languages and his M.A. in Soviet and East European Studies from Stanford University in 1986. As a Rhodes Scholar, he completed his D. Phil. in International Relations at Oxford University in 1991.