PBS FRONTLINE: ANTIDOTE Key Art | ©2025 PBS

The title of the feature-length documentary ANTIDOTE, which premieres on PBS FRONTLINE on Tuesday, May 6, refers broadly to truth being the remedy for lies and tyranny. More specifically, the film chronicles the targeting by Vladimir Putin’s spies of Bulgarian journalist Christo Grozev, head of investigations with THE INSIDER and former lead Russia investigator for the international journalism collective Bellingcat.

Bellingcat – its name refers to “belling the cat,” i.e., doing something dangerous in order to warn others – was founded by Eliot Higgins in 2014. The organization is dedicated to fact-checking and open-source intelligence. They are headquartered in Amsterdam, but have groups around the world, including in the U.S. and the U.K. Part of ANTIDOTE deals with Bellingcat’s infiltration by Russian/Bulgarian spies.

What’s a little odd about ANTIDOTE, its director/producer James Jones explains, is that when he started making the documentary in June 2022, it was about something else.

Jones, an award-winning British-born-and-based documentarian whose films include CHERNOBYL: THE LOST TAPES and ON THE PRESIDENT’S ORDERS, says that he was brought onto ANTIDOTE after Bellingcat had approved having the story of their organization told by the British company Passion.

“I think that Bellingcat had been approached by so many people about collaborating, they did almost a formal process, where they spoke to dozens of different production companies, and ended up choosing to go with Passion. I don’t know whether that was because of Passion’s reputation or their idea for a collaboration felt like the best fit, but by the time I came on board, that relationship was already there.”

The initial concept, Jones continues, “was much more a retrospective look at Bellingcat’s greatest hits, the Skripals [former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, survivors of an attempted assassination attempt], Alexei Navalny, the poisonings and assassinations that they’ve investigated. Which I was interested in, because I’m interested in Russia and Putin.”

So, Jones took on the project, even though “As a journalist or a filmmaker, it’s hugely more interesting to be charting new ground, and covering something that’s an unfolding story. Around that time, the invasion of Ukraine had happened, so we were already living in unprecedented times. Putin’s calculations were changing, and it felt like that film [about Bellingham’s past] was kind of the last chapter of history, and we were moving into a new phase.

“I instinctively prefer making present-tense, ongoing narratives, as opposed to something retrospective that you know exactly what it’s going to be. The first thing that we filmed was the whistleblower escaping across the border. He’s a complicated character who’s kind of been at the heart of darkness, the stakes for speaking out were so high, and there was the ongoing worry about his family, whether they’d be able to escape.”

Then, while Jones was conducting interviews with Grozev about his work with Bellingcat and efforts to free Navalny from Russian imprisonment, it became clear there were active, ongoing threats to Grozev and his family. “Christo’s own story took quite a dramatic turn that ended up quite a long way from what was initially proposed to me, although probably not so far from what I hoped the film might be, which was about the sacrifices you make in speaking the truth about Russia.”

As Jones is a journalist himself, did he find anything meta in building a film around fellow journalist Grozev?

Director and producer James Jones from PBS FRONTLINE: ANTIDOTE | ©2025 PBS

“For sure. And also kind of uncomfortable for the journalist at the heart of it, because Christo is happy being a public persona when it comes to his work – he’s an unusual journalist, in that he’s really an advocate for lots of these causes. But that’s very different than being a public person who talks about their private life. So, it was asking him to do something uncomfortable, but also, yeah, it’s a film made by journalists about the threats to journalism, and it’s not just a Russian story as well, it’s a global issue.

“We know from the messages between the spies that Putin personally has singled out Christo to be a target. Some people think Putin is a master strategist. I think actually he’s a very petty and vindictive kind of Mafia boss. When Christo did the Navalny investigation, it made Putin and his spies the laughingstock of the world, and I think it led to humiliation, and that’s why [Putin] hates Christo.

“And so, it was an interesting process, because it ends up in some ways being a less journalistic film, because we follow the investigation a bit less, and it became more personal, I guess. It was the main investigation that referred to Christo investigating the plot against himself. So, it ended up being less a film about the mechanics of journalism, and more a film about what could be at stake in fulfilling a [journalist goal].”

During the making of ANTIDOTE, there were tragedies. One was the death of Alexei Navalny, murdered in a Russian prison. This saddened people the world over, but was especially devastating to Grozev, who had been a passionate advocate for Navalny’s freedom. Another death hit Grozev much closer to home.

How did Jones balance maintaining journalistic professionalism with respecting and caring for Grozev’s emotions as a human being?

“It’s such an interesting and difficult question, because often, when you’re making a film, something will happen that is traumatic or difficult for your subject. The way I kind of justify it to myself is, those parts of me that are human and want to reach out and give Christo a hug and try and console him in this moment of grief.

“But then equally, the other part of me knows that professionally, this is potentially an important moment to capture.” At first, it was unclear what had happened. Once Grozev had more information, he texted Jones.

“My initial reaction was absolutely one of shock and grief, and made me think, ‘I somehow need to capture this.’ By that point, I’d been spending a lot of time with Christo in New York, when he was told he couldn’t go home. There were those first few weeks, when he was pretty uprooted and discombobulated by getting that news.

“I think our bond was pretty good, and so he trusted me. And so, when I had to ask him if we could meet up and I could do some filming, not only did he understand that it was important to the film, he trusted that I wasn’t some outsider who was looking to use him or exploit his grief, and that was a collaborative working relationship at that point, there was just a mutual understanding. Which was a relief, because you never want to impose yourself on someone going through something so difficult.”

Given what happened with Grozev, was Jones ever concerned for his own safety?

“We’d taken real precautions early on, especially because we were dealing with a whistleblower and his identity and concern for his family’s safety. We were very cautious, using code words, not telling anyone what we worked on, working in a kind of bunker within the Passion office, cut off from everyone else. After a few months, we thought, ‘We’re being a bit silly. No one really cares what we’re doing, we’re just being paranoid.’”

Or maybe not so paranoid.

“Then, six spies get arrested in London, where we all work and live, and they’d been arrested for following Christo for three years. So, that was a wake-up call. And we later discovered that, even the first time we met Christo in London, the Bulgarian spies knew that he was coming before we did, because they had a source within an airline, who had access to bookings and was able to spot his name. So, that was all quite spooky.”

On the other hand, “These spies were so dumb, frankly,” Jones laughs, “that wherever they went, they would leave Google reviews for [places they went while spying] hotels, restaurants, shops, including when they were doing surveillance on Christo in Vienna and Valencia. I noticed that a couple of days before they were arrested in February 2023, one of them had left a Google review for a beauty salon just a couple of minutes from my home. It literally felt a bit close to home, and that gave me pause.

“I think it was probably a coincidence, but the thing with these spies is that they’re not sophisticated and well-trained, but that doesn’t mean that they’re not dangerous, you don’t quite know. They’re so amateurish, and they’re basically in it for the money, that I’m sure I’m incredibly low down the Russian regime’s list of targets, but you just never know. The threat is so unknowable, if they’re able to recruit almost anyone willing to do something for money, that makes it very hard to judge the scale of the threat.”

Was there anyone Jones wanted to interview for ANTIDOTE who declined, either because they were already being interviewed by someone else or because they feared for their safety?

“In the film, there was an ongoing process of figuring out exactly what we would focus on. But we ended up being quite tightly focused on Christo and his small network of collaborators. I guess had our schedule extended, we might have wanted to film [Russian/British journalist] Vladimir Kara-Murza, after he was released from prison. We see his press conference, and then we see the reunion with his wife and kids, and in a way, I think that works. Probably, if he had been released earlier on in our production, we would have filmed something with him.”

What is Jones working on now?

“I’m making a film about Fukushima, the nuclear accident [in Japan] in 2011, which is very different, but completely fascinating. I am also working up an idea about Putin. We’ll see where that goes.”

And what would Jones most like people to know about ANTIDOTE?

“Particularly because we’d have to wait for the trial [of the Bulgarian spies] in London to finish, in the intervening period, Vladimir Kara-Murza was released, which meant that the film ends on a slightly more hopeful tone. I guess the title ANTIDOTE implies that people like Christo and Vladimir Kara-Murza can be a kind of antidote to the poison of Russia at the moment. I’m not incredibly optimistic about the future of Russia, but I think hopefully it’s a film not just about the horrors of the regime, but about the incredible bravery of the people who stand up to it.”

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