VF’s First Feature Documentary, ‘Take No Prisoners,’ Opens at SXSW

The documentary Take No Prisoners begins with a chilling scene straight out of an international thriller. In the interior of a private plane cabin, Roger Carstens, special presidential envoy for hostage affairs (SPEHA) under Donald Trump and Joe Biden, is the movie’s leading man. On a tabletop, he uses cell phones and Ghirardelli chocolates as placeholders for airplanes. Moving them around like chess pieces, he games out how the aircraft will touch down, where it will be positioned on the runway, and the step-by-step plan for pulling off a high-stakes exchange between American and Venezuelan detainees. “For all we know it won’t be a perfect world,” he says. “Just keep adapting.”

The film—from P3 Media in association with Vanity Fair Studios—will have its world premiere this weekend at SXSW in Austin, and is the first feature documentary from VF. It all came together at breakneck speed as Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro seized more and more power—and as Carstens took part in separate negotiations for the release of Americans being held against their will in Gaza, Russia, Afghanistan, and elsewhere.

Based on a story for the June 2024 issue of the magazine, “Take No Prisoners”—written by VF contributing editor Adam Ciralsky—the movie provides uncommon access to Carstens and his caseload as the nation’s top hostage negotiator. Also appearing in the film are Biden’s secretary of state, Antony Blinken (Carstens’s former boss), and former national security adviser Jake Sullivan.

“Much to my surprise the White House said, ‘Tell the story,’” Carstens explained in a video call ahead of the premiere. “‘We’re going to give you full access and we want you to see everything.’” Codirected by Ciralsky and Subrata De—who also serve as producers, along with Gene Klein—the film homes in on the efforts to free Los Angeles public defender Eyvin Hernandez from a notorious Venezuelan prison known as the House of Dreams.

The original article took an expansive view of Carstens’s world and the power brokers who occupy it, so the documentarians’ choice of following a specific case was an unexpected one. “We didn’t know,” Ciralsky explained. “I didn’t know as I sat on that tarmac and seven Americans [were released from Venezuelan prison] on October 1, 2022, that there were people left behind. But they were left behind for incredibly bureaucratic reasons. We realized there’s an ongoing story here: Who’s left behind? Eyvin Hernandez. Who’s Eyvin Hernandez? He’s an LA County public defender who’s devoted his life to helping defend the poor of Los Angeles. Lives in Compton. First in his family to go to college and law school. Has this incredible community around him. How is this guy sitting in a Venezuelan prison?”

The human cost of Hernandez’s story weighed heavily on Ciralsky. He acknowledged that while the case of every detainee is a matter of life and justice, not all are regarded in the same light by those in the US government, leading to a maddeningly slow process for freeing seemingly lower-profile citizens held against their will. Many times, he said, he found himself as both investigative reporter and advocate: “You get to scream from the rafters.”

“Brittney Griner is important, Evan Gershkovich is important,” Ciralsky insisted. “But one’s a journalist and one’s a sports star. How about the guy who’s a public defender? What do we do for somebody who doesn’t have any fame and fortune? The answer was: everything.”

The documentary aims to capture the plight of Hernandez’s extended family as they pressure the White House for action—as well as their resilience in the face of numerous setbacks. At the same time, the filmmakers secure fly-on-the-wall access to private meetings: inside the National Security Council, around Carstens’s office at the State Department, and at tense sessions between diplomats and intermediaries in Venezuela and the island of Canouan. Such backroom encounters give the tale the heat, suspense, and insider-cred of an action movie. (Little wonder that Lionsgate, ABC Signature, and Hulu are also developing a scripted project based on VF’s reporting, with the working title The Envoy, from Ciralsky and showrunner Alexi Hawley.)

“HE’S AN LA COUNTY PUBLIC DEFENDER. LIVES IN COMPTON. HOW IS THIS GUY SITTING IN A VENEZUELAN PRISON?”

“In Roger’s office, there’s always something dramatic happening,” Ciralsky said. “You don’t have to juice the drama. You’ve got somebody languishing in a foreign prison under some terrible circumstances. You have families that are breaking apart, that aren’t meeting their mortgages because the loved one isn’t living in the house. There’s no salary because they’re not showing up for their job. They’re getting tax liens because the IRS doesn’t know that they’re languishing in a foreign jail. That’s just real.”

Ahead of the film’s SXSW premiere (at screenings on March 8 and 9, along with a follow-up panel on March 10), herewith is a conversation with Ciralsky and Carstens on the documentary—and the interplay of policy, politics, and faith that define what is known to many in diplomatic circles as the hostage enterprise.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Vanity Fair: At one point in the film I remember Roger talking about publicity and celebrity as a tool. Could you elaborate a little more on that?

Roger Carstens: Under Biden, we brought back 58 people. And the majority of them weren’t famous; didn’t really have access to a media pipeline. Yet we still worked to bring them back. I would say the Brittney Griner story did a good job of, in a way, highlighting this issue. After [her release] you couldn’t shut it off. There was a point when there were only a few journalists interested in this, Adam Ciralsky being one of them, and now a lot of journalists are interested.

There were people in the US government that complained horrifically about Ciralsky’s report. It told too much, it exposed the wrong parts of the US government. Yet to us, we’re like, “That’s valuable. Now you’re giving a voice to people who may not have had a voice before.” And I credit the media for doing that. I always have. We would not be where we are, and getting all these people home, without the press showing some attention to this and increasing awareness. And Adam played an outsize role in that journey.

Adam Ciralsky: I would say Roger is that unique official who is willing to call in an air strike on his own position. That’s a credit to Roger. I also think it’s very unique to that position of special presidential envoy for hostage affairs. I’m speaking across cases, whether it’s Eyvin Hernandez or Evan Gershkovich, [Roger’s] just fine if there’s a [news] story that’s super critical of his own office, of the US hostage enterprise as a whole. Because that’s going to land on somebody’s desk at the White House as an ongoing problem. The minute it’s no longer a problem on their desk they move on to another issue. And you see that in our film.

There’s that moment where there’s a roundtable at the National Security Council, and they’re asking Roger about Eyvin and his family, “What should we do?” and “What did you tell them?” Roger says, “I told them what the secretary and the president say,” which is, “You got to follow your heart. You’ve got to speak out. We’re not going to tell you not to do that.”

Do you see the public understanding of your position—and of the apparatus—as evolving for the better?

Carstens: It’s hard to know. I think we did a great job in terms of people getting an understanding of what we do. It probably looks sexier than it is. Because, as Adam knows, for every person you get home there might be a year or two of just having really tough meetings and building loving—and yet tough—relationships with the families. There’s all the combat that goes on in Washington, DC, to get things done. The interagency fights are intense. And they’re important. You have to have that. There have to be these tensions in government organizations.

Yet I think the public perception is that SPEHA is flying all over the world just banging out negotiations and getting stuff done. Is that a part of it? Yeah. But for every 3% of “Oh my goodness, we got someone back,” there’s 97% of pain, tears, anguish, sleepless nights. And it’s a job that if anyone really knew what you had to do to do it, no one would want it. It’s not a fun job. And yet it’s fulfilling.

“WE’RE THE ‘GO GET SHIT DONE’ TEAM FOR THE US GOVERNMENT.”

We’re not government as usual. We are going to build a relationship with the families, we’re going to cry with them, we’re going to love them, we’re going to hug them, we’re going to declassify information and brief it: That we’re the “go get shit done” team for the US government. What the families would also tell you, they’d say, “You know what? They got them out. But it took three years.” Or it took six years. And I think that’s the frustration I would say Adam and I share, and the families share. Part of our job was just to keep trying to get the urgency, speed up iteration of the negotiations. The public’s perception is in a way accurate because we are the people who care. We are the people who want to get stuff done.

Ciralsky: I was filming in Roger’s office the day Evan Gershkovich was taken. And they were literally trying to scramble and figure out what was happening. We were making this film when Brittney Griner got out. We were cutting this film when Evan and everyone else returned. And Paul Whelan and everyone. This is one area of government that a great deal of thought and consideration has gone into. Because it was a topic that was very badly mishandled. And there was a recognition that it was badly mishandled. That’s not something that usually happens in Washington, that there’s any recognition of wrongdoing.

There was an effort to fix it through presidential executive orders and decision directives that then became the Levinson Act. This is a bipartisan issue.

From article to documentary to scripted television, what was considered to ensure this story was not lost in its many translations?

Ciralsky: You can reduce anything to a procedural and suck it of all of its heart and all of its pacing so that it’s a 30-minute rinse and repeat. That is not what anybody signed up for. So there’s a real commitment. I’ve seen the scripts [of the planned dramatic adaptation based on the original VF story]. It has everything that the article has in it. Is it entertaining? It has to be entertaining. But there are low moments, there are high moments, and everything in between. Which is reflective of what I observed of your world, Roger, which is: There were the highest of highs and there were really low lows.

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