Fresh Air - Grand Ole Opry At 100: Earl Scruggs & Loretta Lynn

Episode Date: November 28, 2025

We mark the 100th anniversary of The Grand Ole Opry, country music’s biggest stage, and feature interviews with two of its members. First up, bluegrass banjo player Earl Scruggs. He and guitarist Lester Flatt had a hit with “Foggy Mountain Breakdown.” Scruggs told Terry Gross how he developed his famous three-finger picking style while absent-mindedly playing the banjo one day. Also, we listen back to Terry’s interview with country music star, “Honky Tonk Girl” Loretta Lynn. Film critic Justin Chang reviews a new documentary about Russia's crackdown on independent journalists. It’s called ‘My Undesirable Friends: Part I — Last Air in Moscow.’Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

This is Fresh Air. I'm David B. and Cooley. 100 years ago today, the Grand Ole Opry began, with a performance on the Alabama radio station, W.S.M. We're going to mark that anniversary with performances by two country artists who were members of the Opry. We begin with the great bluegrass musician Earl Scruggs, who perfected the three-finger style of banjo picking that became standard in bluegrass. Along with guitarist Lester Flat, he was half of the duo responsible. for such bluegrass standards as Foggy Mountain Breakdown and the theme to the Beverly Hillbillies. In 1945, Scruggs joined Bill Monroe's band, the Bluegrass Boys, the band that virtually invented Bluegrass. He made his first appearance on the Grand Ole Opry that same year

with Monroe's band, which included Lester Flat. In 1948, Flat and Scruggs left Monroe to form their own group and became one of the most popular acts in country music. Their hit Foggy Mountain Breakdown became even more famous when it was used on the soundtrack of the 1967 movie Bonnie and Clyde. In 1969, Earl Scruggs formed his own band, the Earl Scruggs review with his son's Gary and Randy. Earl Scruggs died in 2012. Terry Gross spoke with him in 2003. He had just released a CD called The Three Pickers, which featured Doc Watson and Ricky Skaggs. Here's a song from that album, Feast Here Tonight. I'll get me a rabbit in a log and I ain't got my dog

how well I'll get him I know I'll get me a briar and I'm twisting his hair that way I'll get him my nose I know I know I surely know That way I'll get him I know

I'll get me a brower And I'm twisting in his hair And that way I'll get him I know All right Earl Earl Drugs, welcome to fresh air. Thank you.

Now, you grew up during the Depression. Your father died when you were four. How did your family make a living when he died? He was a farmer also. So I stayed on the farm until I got old enough to get a job in the factory. And on the farm, you work from daylight to dark, and in the factory you worked eight hours. So I thought that was great.

Right. Who did you hear play banjo before you started playing yourself? I mean, I've read that there was no radio in your house when you were growing up. No. So who did you hear? How did you hear them? We had a banjo in our home. My father played the old style banter, so I had a banter there, and my brother Horace had a guitar.

And so we just started playing just old tunes that we'd heard before, and then a little later, we got a serial rowbook radio and started listening to some. mainly the grand old opera and some programs like that. But as far as the style banter that I played, nobody had played it before me. And the only thing that is different from my playing from what I'd heard is I had a three-finger roll later been called Scrogg style. But it seemed to help me to play slow,

tunes as well as up-tempo tunes. Most of the bans are playing in the old days were a hold-down-type tunes, up-tempo tunes. So could you put into words what your style of picking is a three-finger style? Well, it's just what you hear. It involves, it's a little misleading, say, three fingers. It's actually two fingers, middle and index finger in your thumb. and it's a kind of some of the rolls will go if you number your thumb one the index two and your middle finger three it's like a one two three roll over and over but to to do a tune it's like trying to say of a word with the same exact same amount of syllables in the word you've got to alternate the roll some to make the tune flow since you didn't have a radio when you were very young and you didn't have a record player

so you're just like hearing you know musicians who may have been you know living where you were how did you come up with your style of playing with your style of picking I guess the old days you have one main room you have you take company to company to when they come that you don't use every day. So I was in what we call the front room with a banjo one day and I was in a mode where if somebody had asked me

what was I thinking about and I bet you've been in that mode yourself you couldn't tell them what you was thinking about you just kind of sitting there. And I was picking the banja and I was playing a tune that still played a day called Rubin. And when I realized what I was doing

I was playing the way that I play now. It was like having a dream and wake up. You were actually playing the tune. So that was the modus in and what I was doing when I learned exactly what I'm doing today. Now, you joined Bill Monroe's Bluegrass Boys in 1945. This was the group that basically created the sound that's become known as Bluegrass. When you joined the band, could you hear that something different was happening there? Oh, yeah.

And nobody had had this style banja in the group, and he just did the type tunes that would make the banja sound good. So it was a good shot to start with because he had grand old opera exposure and it'd give me a lot of exposure when I went to work with him. And it got immediate attention because nobody had heard that kind of a band. Peking, so it caught on real fast with the public. Why don't we hear one of your recordings with Bill Monroe from 1947? This is one of the famous ones, Bluegrass Breakdown, with Bill Monroe and Mandolin, Lester Flat, guitar, my guest, Earl Scruggs, Banjo, recorded in 1947. I'm going to be able to be.

Bill Monroe and his Bluegrass Boys recorded in 1947 with my guest Earl Scruggs on Banjo. What was life on the road like with Bill Monroe? It was terrible. If I hadn't have been 21 years old and full of energy, it just came off on a farm and a thread mill where I could, you know, I thought to do an hour show on the road was a pushover compared to eight hours in the mill or from sunup to sundown on the farm. And music was my love, so to get into a group that had good singing and playing, and Bill had that, especially good singing. and had good fiddle player. So I went in, and it just seemed to make a full band, especially for that style of music.

That was long before anybody had tagged it as bluegrass, it was just country music. But why did you hate traveling so much with the band? Why did I hate it? It was because we did it 24 hours a day practically. Back then it was only two-lane highways. and he traveled in the 41 Chevrolet car, and we'd leave after the opera on Saturday night

and maybe worked down in South Georgia as about as far as you could get for a Sunday afternoon show and on down to Miami someplace for Monday or Tuesday and worked until about Thursday and start working back to Nashville. So it was just, you'd only be in Nashville long enough to do the Grand Ole Opera and to get a change of clothes

and pack your suitcase and head up. out again. I was single at the time, so I was living in a hotel and I had one suitcase. And so I had to really work on it to keep clean clothes for every night doing a show on the road. Now, it was in the Bill Monroe band that you met guitarist Lester Flat, who became your long musical partner. What were your first impressions of him when you first heard him play and sing? Well, I like to sing it and is playing fit in good with that style of music. And we piled around together, room together, and so we did that for two and a half, three years. And that's when really we never had talked about starting to show ourselves, but I had made up my mind that I was going to just get off the road.

So I worked two weeks notice And when I Started to leave that night Lester turned in his notice And while he was working his notice He gave me a call over North Carolina And said Why don't we

Get on the radio station over close to your home And try it as a group ourselves So that's how we got started With the Foggy Mountain Boys Now you started recording You and Lester Flat started recording in, I think it was 1948. And for the first couple of years, you recorded for Mercury Records. During that period, you recorded what became one of your best-known songs, Foggy Mountain Breakdown.

Yeah. Is there a story behind the song? Well, that's just a simple song that I probably wrote in 10 or 15 minutes, and I've written several other tunes. had some pretty big hits, but nothing like Foggy Mountain Breakdown. How did Foggy Mountain Breakdown end up being used in the movie Bonnie and Clyde? He called and wanted me to write a tune for them. Who called?

A Warren Beatty, who wrote and started in the show. And so he called back, I think I'm quoting this exactly the way it was, and a few days, and he said he didn't want me to write anything because he'd found a tune that he thought fit what he wanted. See, we recorded that tune before they got, what I say, good equipment. I mean, just playing everyday microphones in a radio station and no to start making tunes sound fuller or something. It was just raw material.

Well, that, I mean, it didn't have no echo change. or anything on it. So that's what Warren Beatty heard in that tune. So he didn't want to try to record another tune because he thought that the equipment that they had then would give it a more modern tune than what we had recorded, which turned out to be Foggy Mountain Breakdown

and the sound that we got then. So you're saying that he used the original recording and he didn't want you to re-record it? He took the Mercury recording and that was it. Why don't we hear that original recording of Foggy Mountain Breakdown? And this is Lester Flat and my guest, Earl Scruggs. Now, you mentioned what, when you got off the road with Bill Monroe, what you wanted to do is a radio show. And first you did one in Bristol.

Then in 1953, you ended up doing a radio show in Nashville at a station there. WSM, yeah. Yeah, and it was, I think, a 15-minute program every morning at 545, which is pretty darn early to have to perform. We'd come in 2 o'clock and go to bed and get up at 4 to try to get awake enough to do a live radio program. But that was your bread and butter in those days. By that, I mean, we made our real, really our living by the road work that we did. we'd go out and do shows and charge admission and get a percentage of that and also some flat rate, too. But that just put us to working in better, bigger order torms and bigger crowds.

The show was sponsored by Martha White Flower. Yeah. And I understand the jingle for that became pretty well known, and you were even requested to play it at some of your concerts. I've never heard it. How did it go? Now you bake bright with Martha White. Goodness gracious, good and light, Martha White, for the finest biscuits, cakes, and pies.

It's Martha White for self-rising flour. And the group says, The One All-Purpose Flower, get Martha White for Self-Rising Flower. It's got hot ryes. Hot Ries was actually a baking soda that went into the bread that makes bread rise. You know that yourself being a lady. But I thought it was pretty cleverly. So did you get, like, a lifetime supply of free Martha White Flower? Oh, no. Oh, no. They would probably have done that, but I got a lifetime of work with Martha White. It's a great company, and they helped us just more than I could total up, I guess.

How long did that show last? I'd wish my wife was in here she could tell you better than me but it lasted for a lot of years and we went into television television came in about 1955 so they put us we started transcribing the morning show radio show and we'd sleep late but we'd have to do a live television show at a different city each night and a reason I say a live radio television that was before they had cameras to film you with so we'd have to, we'd leave

4 o'clock Monday morning to go to down in Georgia had two cities in Georgia, Atlanta being one and Wednesday was Florence, South Carolina Thursday was Huntington, West Virginia and Friday was Jackson, Tennessee

down west Tennessee, and Saturday. back at WSM television and do the Grand Ole Opry on Saturday night. And if we were working on Sunday, we were free until 4 o'clock Monday morning. We started that 2,500-mile tour again. There is a Gibson banjo that is named for you. It's called The Earl. Yeah.

It has a portrait of you on it and your signature. is it a lot of fun to have, you know, a banjo that's dedicated to you that bears your name and likeness? It is. As a matter of fact, they're making five different models with my name on it from the plain banjo, which they're all basically the same banter. What runs up the cost is like gold plating and engraving and things of that nature. Do you play one of those Gibson's or do you play something else?

well yeah i play a gibson banjo is it an is it an earl well basically it is i'm playing a banter that i've been playing since back in the late 40s i guess early 50s but it's still basically they're still making basically the same banter they were making way back there when you say you're still playing the same banjo do you mean it's literally the same instrument or that it's the same model. Same banjo. Same banjo. So do you have to get it

like redone occasionally? Well, the only thing you're going to wear out on the banjo is the head. The head is, used to be skin, but now it's plastic. They will wear out on you.

And the strings outside of that, you play one for a thousand years unless you got it broken some way. Now, what do you love so much about this banjo?

Is it just a sentimental attachment? something special about the sound? Well, it produces the sound that my ear's looking for. Maybe I've just gotten used to it, but I like the sound that I get out of that particular banjo. I feel at home with it when I take it out of the case and start, you know, when you start with another instrument, they all have their feel and playing the same instruments. You know what it's going to feel like when you take it out of the case and start to perform. Well, I want to thank you so much for talking with us.

It's been my pleasure. Bluegrass banjo player Earl Scruggs speaking to Terry Gross in 2003. He died in 2012. We'll hear from another country artist Loretta Lynn after a break. And Justin Chang reviews the new documentary, My Undesirable Friends, Part 1, Last Air in Moscow. I'm David B. and Cooley, and this is Fresh Air. Support for this podcast. For many families, remembering loved ones means honoring the details that made them unique.

Dignity Memorial is dedicated to professionalism and compassion in every detail of a life celebration. Find a provider near you at DignityMemorial.com. We're marking the 100th anniversary of the Grand Ole Opry. One of its biggest stars was the beloved and influential country singer Loretta Lynn. She was famous for her singing, her songwriting, and her life story told in the night. 1980 film, Coal Miner's Daughter. The film was adapted from Lynn's memoir, which described how she grew up in poverty in eastern Kentucky, became a wife at age 15, and after having four children, started writing songs and performing. She made her debut on the Grand Ole Opry in 1960 with her

first song and first hit, Honky Tunk Girl. Terry spoke with Loretta Lynn in 2010. Lynn died in 2022. Let's start with Lynn's honky-ton girl. Ever since you left me, I've done nothing but wrong. Many nights I've laid awake and cry. We once were happy, my heart was in the world, but now I'm a honky-ton girl. So turn as you walk the way up high And fill my glass up while I cry

I've lost everything in this world And now I'm a on getongy tongue bird Now, the song we just heard, that's the first song you wrote. It was your first record, released in 1960. You say you wrote it in 20 minutes on a $17 guitar that your husband bought to you. That's true. Because he thought you sang well. Yeah. And you wrote a song because he told you to. Do you think you ever would have written or performed if your husband didn't say that's what you should do?

No, I wouldn't have because I was too bashful. I wouldn't get out in front of people. I wouldn't, you know, I was really bashful, and I wouldn't. I would have never sang in front of anybody. So when you wrote Honky Tonk Girl with absolutely no songwriting experience, how did you approach writing a song? You know, I just sat down with my guitar. I was outside.

In fact, I was leaning up against the old toilet out there in West Coast in Washington State. Did you say the toilet? The old toilet, yeah. Okay. And I sat there and wrote Honky Tunk Girl and Whispering Sea. So what made you think of the story that you tell in Honky Tunk Girl? Well, I think I probably listened to a bunch of people, you know, their songs and stuff. And I figured, well, if they can write, I can too.

So I just said, hey, I'm going to tell a story. And that's what I did. And had you hung out at Honking Tongues or did you know them from songs? No. When I first started writing, my husband got me a job at this little bar. And me and a steel player and my brother, he played the fiddle and sang. So we sang together And so we really had a good time, you know

And I wrote Honky Tunk Girl and Whispering C During that time So you were doing some performing Yeah, just it started In fact, I'd never sing in front of anybody Told my husband Pushed me out there, you know I'd never been out and sing for anybody

But at whom you sang? I rocked the babies to sleep And in Kentucky, when I was growing up With my sisters and brothers, We all sang and rocked the babies to sleep, you know, but that was about as far as we ever did, you know. So when you recorded your first single, Hunky Town Girl, you were 24, you'd already been married for 11 years

because you got married when you were 13, and you already had four children, do I have that right? I had four kids, uh-huh. And the twins came a little bit later. Yeah, the twins come later. What was your life like as a wife and mother before you started recording? It wasn't easy.

me and my husband both worked I took care of the farmhouse I cleaned and cooked for 36 ranch hands Wow And yeah Before I started singing And so Singing was easy

I thought gee whiz this is an easy job Wait so you cooked and cleaned for 36 ranch hands And had four children Uh huh Sure did Paid the rent on the old house that we lived in and that's what I did to make the rent. Yeah.

It wasn't easy, let me tell you. Life was hard. So when you made your first appearance on the opera, which was the same year that you recorded Honky Tonk Girl, you weren't used to performing on such a prestigious stage in front of an audience like that. Did you know how to perform on stage in a place like the opera? Not really.

I just got on there with my guitar, I sing. I mean, I just did it just like I was doing it at home, you know. I never thought about it being the grand old robbery, because if I had it, I wouldn't have been able to have done it. You just pretty well got to figure, well, you know, it's something like you do every day. Right. It's so much like what you do every day. Yeah. So the next song we're going to hear is a song that you first recorded in 1966. Don't come home with drinking with loving on your mind.

And this is a great song. But first, I want to hear the story of how you wrote it. You'd already had about six years of songwriting experience behind you. You probably were no longer leaning against the toilet when you wrote this. I was probably out at a, dude fixed me a little writing room at this time, out in Goodly'sville. Do it was your husband, your late husband. Yes. And he's the only one I've ever had.

And so he fixed me this little writing room, and I'd go out there and I'd write. and this is one of the songs that I wrote was Don't Come Home Drinking and loving on your mind And at this point did you feel like I know how to write a song Oh yeah When I wrote Don't Come Home of Drinking

I knew I could write Because I'd had quite a few on the charts For that time Now you've said that your husband Is in every song that you've written In a large way or in a small way Still is I mean

If I write a song He's in there somewhere Were you thinking of him when he wrote this song Oh, yeah. Would he come home after drinking like that? Well, sure. If a man drinks, he's going to come home drinking. He liked a drink.

Was this song intended to send him a message at all? Not really. I probably told him many times. I didn't have to sing about it. Okay. Well, let's hear the song. All right. This is Don't Come Home a Drinking,

recorded in 1966 by Loretta Lynn, and it was a number one country music chart. Okay. Well, you thought I'd be waiting. up when you came home last night you'd been out with all the boys and you ended up half-tide but liquor and love

they just don't mix leave the bottle or me behind and don't come home with drinking with loving on your mind no don't come home with drinking with loving on your mind just stay out there On the town and see what you can find. Because if you want that kind of love, well, you don't need none of mine.

So don't come home with drinking with loving on your mind. Now, when you started performing, Patsy Klein was your mentor until she died. But, you know, she hadn't been in the business that long when I come to Nashville. She'd only been singing two or three years. Mm-hmm. And, yeah. So she must have really related to what you were going through. Oh, yeah.

We talked a lot. What were some of the things that she taught you that really helped you a lot? Things relating to, you know, from clothing to performing style to dealing with the music industry. Yeah, go ahead. You know, with the style and everything that I was, you know, I was in blue jeans and a t-shirt or blue jeans and just the western. shirt. And she taught me a lot, how to dress. What did she tell you about how to dress? Well, she told me to get out of the jeans, you know. Of course, I would wear them until we get to the radio station, and then I'd get in the back seat and put on my dress. And I'd take the dress off

and go back into my jeans and wait until the next radio station. And then I'd go back into my dress again. And did you give you any advice about performing? Not really. I think she wanted me to learn that on my own. And I think it's the best for every artist to learn on their own what they're going to do on stage and how they act. And I don't think anybody else can teach you that. We're listening to an interview Terry Gross recorded in 2010 with Loretta Lynn. We'll hear more after a break.

This is fresh air. Let's get back to Terry's interview with country singer Loretta Lynn. Terry asked her about one of her controversial songs, The Pill. We have a lot of them that says it like it is, so that's really, I guess we're not to talk about the way it is. This has some lyrics that I think, you know, really were controversial in some country music circles at the time. And the lyrics include this old maternity dress I've got is going in the garbage. You've set this chicken your last time because now I've got the pill. I'm tearing down this brooder house because now I've got the pill.

Yeah. So the song sounds autobiographical in some ways. I'm not saying that you are necessarily angry in the way. The character in the song is angry. But you had six children. I had six kids. I lost three. You lost three. I lost three. I was about five and six. Well, I wasn't. You know, I lost them before they were born. Oh, so you had six and lost three others? Mm-hmm. Wow. Yeah. That's a lot of pregnancies. Yeah.

Right, okay. Stating the obvious. Did you share the song's anger? Well, I sure didn't like it when I got pregnant a few times. You know, it's hard for a woman to have so many kids. and um well at the time i guess i had um four and then got pregnant and had you know with the twins but um yeah i was a little angry let's hear it and this was released in 1975 recorded in 1972 this is loretta lynn the pill

you wind me and dine me when i was you girl must if I'd be your wife You'd show me the world But all I've seen of this old world Is a bed and a doctor bill I'm tearing down your brooder house Because now I've got the pill All these years I've stayed at home

While you had all your fun And every year that's gone by another baby's come There's gonna be some changes made Right here on nursery hill You set this chicken your last time Cause now I've got the pill This old maternity dress I've got

Is going in the garbage The clothes I'm wearing from now on Won't pick up so much yardage Now, you've said that you never even used the pill as birth control. Well, if I'd had it, I'd have used it at the time, but, yeah. Because even back when I was having all the kids, we didn't have birth control pills. Or if they did, I didn't know anything about them. Well, you're right that there's a lot you didn't know about when you got married in 1947.

And you say you didn't know anything about sex either, didn't? No, you said you didn't. know anything about sex or even pregnancy you say when you got pregnant you didn't even know the word is that right well i don't know uh i guess we just called it having a baby we didn't call it pregnant back in butcher holler there was a lot of things we didn't know so a lot of things they still don't know back there you probably had no idea you were ever going to become famous no never and um i still don't i'm not famous I'm just me.

I want to play another song, and this is something more recent than what we've been hearing. This is your collaboration with Jack White. He produced an album of yours in 2004, Van Lee or Rose. How did you meet? I went to Detroit to work, and Jack White came to see me. And, of course, he told me about when he was little, he was about nine years old, when Coal Miner's Daughter come out, he stayed in the theater the whole time all day long and watched Co-Miner's daughter over and over and over.

So when he got a chance to work with me, he says, I told him I had to go home because I said, I've got to hurry, because I've got to record tomorrow. He says, well, how about me coming, being the producer? I said, well, why not? That's how we got together. So he was in Nashville by the time I was, and we recorded, and that's how we started.

The track I want to play is called Miss Being Misses. you wrote all the songs on this album and this is one of my favorites I like the song a lot and also I just love how how stripped down it is it's just you and a guitar is that Jack White on guitar

that's Jack White okay do you want to say anything about writing the song well you know I don't like to talk about the way I write songs I just let people hear a man know what I'm talking about all right good enough

so this is Loretta Lynn from the 2004 album Van Lear Rose, produced by Jack White, who's accompanying her on guitar. I lie here all alone in my bed of memories. I'm dreaming of your sweet kiss. Oh, how you loved on me. I can almost fill you with me. Here in this blue moonlight, oh, I miss being misses tonight. Like so many other hearts, mine wanted to be free.

I've been held here every day since you've been away from me. My reflection in the mirror, it's such a hurtful sigh. Oh, I miss be and miss us tonight. Oh, I miss be a miss us tonight. Oh, and how I love them love an arm that once helped me so tired I took off my wedding plan

and put it on my ride and I miss being misses tonight that's my guest Loretta Lynn with Jack White on guitar from the album

Van Lair Rose, which Jack White produced of Loretta Lynn songs in 2004. your husband who we've spoken a little bit about died in 1996 and you didn't perform for a while after that how has your life changed since he's been gone well not for the better i mean i miss him so much you know he kind of kept things going like me recording and he'd always tell me how good i was you know and that always helped a lot and he would say you know we need to

get a new record out or whatever he always kept me moving and if hadn't been for him I wouldn't have been singing period because he thought I could sing and that's he put me to work you know as so many people

are I think kind of baffled a little bit by the relationship because it seems on some ways to have been a very rocky relationship and at the same time You stayed with him throughout. I think we had a relationship. We fought one day and we'd love the next. So, I mean, to me, that's a good relationship.

If you can't fight and if you can't tell each other what you think, why your relationship ain't much anyway. You don't need him anymore to tell him you're a good singer, right? I mean, you know that, right? Well, I don't know about that, but I try. Well, Loretta Lynn, it's really been great to talk with you. Thank you so very much. It's been nice to talk to you, honey.

Loretta Lynn, speaking with Terry Gross in 2010. Loretta Lynn died in 2022. Tonight, the Grand Ole Opry will celebrate its 100th anniversary with a live-stream concert. Coming up, Justin Chang reviews a new documentary about Russia's crackdown on independent journalists. This is fresh air. Our film critic, Justin Chang, says the best documentary here, he's seen this year is a five-and-a-half-hour film called My Undesirable Friends Part 1, last air in Moscow.

Filmed over several months in late 2021 and early 2022, it follows several independent journalists in Moscow as they deal with the fallout of Vladimir Putin's crackdown on reporters and Russia's initial invasion of Ukraine. My Undesirable Friends received a Gotham Award nomination for Best Documentary and is playing its select venues around the country. Here is Justin's review. In October 2021, the New York-based filmmaker Julia Loctev flew to Moscow amid nationwide protests in support of the Russian opposition leader, Alexei Navalny.

Vladimir Putin's government had begun cracking down on independent journalists covering the protests, branding them as foreign agents, a designation that effectively stigmatized, them, and force them to include disclaimers with their work. Loctave began filming several of these journalists who courageously kept reporting on the abuses of the regime, including her friend Anna Nemzer, a talk-show host for the independent channel TV Raine. Hoping to capture the journalist's ordeal as nimbly and thoroughly as possible, Loctave became a one-person crew, following her subjects around their homes and workplaces, and

and filming on an iPhone. She shot for months as tensions mounted, culminating in Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Not long afterward, all her subjects fled the country. The result of her efforts is an extraordinarily tense and intimate new documentary by Undesirable Friends Part 1, Last Air, in Moscow. Loctave is currently making a part 2, which will focus on the same subject,

as they try to continue their work in exile. Part one, though, is already a stunning accomplishment. A harrowing immersion in the daily lives of journalists who find themselves in a state of free fall. The film is divided into five chapters. The first three take place in the months leading up to the invasion of Ukraine. We see Anna Nemzer in the TV Rain Studio, interviewing activists who advocate for immigrants,

people with disabilities, and other margins. nationalized groups. We see journalists reporting from the front lines of the protests, and not conforming to state propaganda talking points. Whether there are data journalists, investigative reporters, or feature writers, they all try to keep on working, despite their foreign agent status, which some of them try to fight in court. Others mock the term, and treat it as a badge of honor. Most have looked-to-have subjects are women in their 20s and 30s, and over the course of these five-and-a-half hours were moved by their sense of camaraderie and community and also by their gallows humor. They hang out at each other's apartments and crack jokes about the

likelihood that they've been bugged, or that they might be arrested or detained. As we'll see in the film's later stretch, they're not wrong to worry. Lokov, who was born in the former Soviet Union and moved to the U.S. as a child, is a superbly observant filmmaker. In the past two decades, she's directed two fictional dramas, the loneliest planet, and day-night, day-night. Both slow-burning character studies that took their time getting under your skin. My Undesirable Friends, Part 1, is a work of similar patience, and once Russia's full-scale assault on Ukraine begins, the movie has us fully in its grip. After the darkly comic tension of the first three parts, the fourth and fifth chapter,

become outright horrifying. As the journalists make plans to flee, the story's center of gravity shifts to a reporter whose fiancé has been imprisoned for treason, and who must make the heart-rending decision whether to stay or leave. It's impossible to watch my undesirable friends, part one, without thinking of President Trump's ongoing attacks on the press.

It's also hard not to see the film's events from the depressing standpoint of the present, with Navalny dead and the war in Ukraine still raging miserably on. Yet as grim as it is, the movie isn't a hopeless experience. I came away with deep admiration and affection for these journalists, and for their devotion to their beleaguered but invaluable profession. This is one of the most engrossing movies, fiction or nonfiction, that I've seen all year. Because it doesn't have an American distributor, it also hasn't been the easiest movie to see.

It's now playing in select venues around the country, and if you have a chance to see it in a theater in the coming weeks, you should. Five and a half hours may sound like a commitment, but once this movie has begun, you won't want to leave. And you'll be as eager as I am, by the end, to see what lies ahead for these intrepid souls in part. too. Justin Chang is a film critic for the New Yorker. He reviewed My Undesirable Friends, Part 1, Last Air in Moscow. You can find a list of where you can see the film on the website, argopictures.com.

That's A-R-G-O-T-Pictures.com. On Monday's show, Oscar-winning costume designer Paul Taswell. He watched The Wizard of Oz as a child, designed The Wiz in high school, and now he's brought Wicked to life. He talks about creating more than a thousand looks to tell the story of Wicked for Good. I hope you can join us. To keep up with what's on the show and get highlights of our interviews, follow us on Instagram at NPR Fresh Air.

You can subscribe to our YouTube channel at YouTube.com slash this is fresh air. We're rolling out new video. with in-studio guests behind-the-scenes shorts and iconic interviews from the archive. Fresh Air's executive producer is Danny Miller. Sam Brigger is our managing producer. Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham with additional engineering support

by Joyce Lieberman, Julian Hertzfeld, and Deanna Martinez. Our interviews and reviews are produced and edited by Phyllis Myers, Anne-Marie Baldenado, Lauren Crenzel, Teresa Madden, Monique Nazareth, Thea Chaliner, Susan Yacundi, and Anna Bauman. Our digital media producer is Molly C.V. Nisper. Hope Wilson is our consulting visual producer. For Terry Gross and Tanya Mosley, I'm David B. Incool.