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Logline: Never before seen on film, two of history’s most extraordinary leaders—one born of revolution, the other of privilege—give a gripping first-hand account of how they led the world back from the brink of nuclear Armageddon by finding the courage to change.
Story Synopsis: Nikita Khrushchev first set foot on foreign soil in 1939, when the red army invaded western Ukraine, then a part of Poland. There he oversaw the mass deportations, arrests, and mock elections that insured the conquered territory “voluntarily” joined the Soviet Union. That same year, Jack Kennedy joined his father on a visit to the King of England, where he took tea with a 12 -year-old princess Elizabeth before flying off to Rome to watch the Pope give communion to his little brother.
Written, directed and edited by Emmy winning and five-time Oscar nominated Michael Chandler, Jack and Nikita – My Adversary My Partner uncovers the story of two unlikely characters divided by class, age, and ideology – one the son of a miner, the other the son of a millionaire – who led their countries out of the straitjacket of Cold War thinking towards a new way of living in peace. Yet at every turn they undermined their own sincere efforts through self-made crises, miscalculations, and outright blunders, avoiding nuclear war only after taking every step to unleash it.
There’s an old saying that diplomacy is the art of keeping your enemy talking until your archers are in range. Both Kennedy & Khrushchev were not afraid of using deception, flattery and humor in a diplomatic dance where each tried to gain the upper hand. To cut through the institutional thicket separating them, they relied on secret back channels and a correspondence they kept hidden from others. It was a relationship complete with lies, betrayal and reconciliation, with all the intrigue of a spy novel.
But until now, that human aspect has languished in dusty archives, leaving questions that only the men themselves could answer: Why did their only face-to-face meeting go so tragically wrong? How did their relationship serve them during the tensest moments of crisis? What were they really saying behind each other’s backs?
Using responsibly generated AI voices, together with animation and secret White House tapes, this political thriller captures the missing intimacy of those crisis years with an immediacy and accuracy that second-hand accounts cannot match. There is no substitute for witnessing the tragicomic moment when Khrushchev interrupts his war-planning against Kennedy to decide on the proper gifts to send him. Or for watching a stunned Kennedy sit in silence as a four-star U.S. General hurls personal insults at his Commander-in-Chief. The audience is an eyewitness to history as it happens, sitting at the elbow of the people who made it. We also use this history as a lens through which to see our present time, where the dormant seeds of Khrushchev’s nuclear brinksmanship and insecurities sprout anew in Putin’s Russia.
Despite their differences, Kennedy and Khrushchev did have one thing in common: an abhorrence of war. Both had seen the horrors of the battlefield, both had lost loved ones to combat. Nikita lost his son, Leonid, and Kennedy lost his brother, Joe. Both feared the danger of war in the nuclear age. In the end, that shared bond would prove to be enough. As Khrushchev recalled, “John Kennedy and I met man to man. He was both my partner and my adversary.”
Executive Producer
Darin Nellis is the co-founder of Agora Productions and Stone Tiger Productions. Nellis produced the critically acclaimed documentary films, JFK: A President Betrayed (Amazon Prime) and The Power of the Powerless (TPOP). Oliver Stone said JFK was “brilliant” and the Hollywood Reporter called it “an excellent example of cinematic scholarship.” Nellis headed up the distribution of TPOP, which aired on ten TV networks in Europe and Asia and was distributed by human rights organizations on three continents. He also spearheaded the development and distribution of an educational curricula for Powerless, now being used by hundreds of universities across the globe. Currently, Nellis serves as the Executive Producer for “Calitopia,” a new surf adventure series and “Jack and Nikita – My Partner My Adversary,” an exciting new genre breaking political thriller.
In addition to his work in film production, Nellis has served as an executive for multiple high-tech companies and served the Peace Corps in Mauritania, West Africa, where he nurtured an appreciation for globalism. Fluent in French, and conversationally fluent in Spanish and Arabic, he received his MBA in International Business from Loyola Marymount University.
Executive Producer
Marné Jones-Boulware is a Producer at Agora Productions. She has produced multiple films together with the founders of Agora, including Gandhi, King, Ikeda. and Evac Protocol. She also owns and operates a successful Standards and Practices company, “Power Pals Productions,” where she consults on such shows as TITAN GAMES, AMERICAN NINJA WARRIOR and ULTIMATE BEAST MASTER. Prior to this, she worked as a Development executive at CBS and as a Senior Standards editor of ABC/Disney.
Board Director
Friedberg is the recipient of a Primetime Emmy, a National Emmy, The American Association for the Advancement of Science ‘Westinghouse’ Award for Science Programming, three Columbus and three Golden Eagles for Best Documentaries. He has worked for over 30 years supervising, producing, writing and directing documentaries, reality, investigative and educational programs and has 18 feature film credits as Director of Photography.
Director, Board Of Directors
Andrew Henderson II is the CEO of GrayHawk Health, an in-home and virtual medical provider proudly serving older, disabled, and underprivileged populations based in Pennsylvania.
After an extensive career as an Executive Director at JP Morgan and Vice President of eCommerce at The Walt Disney Company, Andrew wanted to create meaning over money. In 2014, he purchased a small home care company and further developed it into GrayHawk Home Care. During his tenure as President and CEO, Andrew shifted the company from private pay to Medicaid Waver, making much-needed home care services attainable. He built a company that catered to the non-medical needs of the older, underprivileged population. Once Andrew began to grasp the reality faced by Medicaid patients, he recognized various gaps in patients’ access to care. Frustrated by the limitations to assist these patients with clinical services, Andrew exited the Home Care business in 2022 to found GrayHawk Health, a company designed to wrap clinical, social, and case management services around complex populations of patients to reduce cost and improve health outcomes.
Andrew earned his BS in Finance from California State University and his MBA in Finance from Columbia Business School.
Director Of Photography
São Paulo native Dennis Zanatta is a Cinematographer with two decades of experience in the film, television and commercial industry. Since earning a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Cinematography at the American Film Institute in 2015, he has been based in Los Angeles. His credits include numerous documentaries and commercials as well as the feature films “Loulou”, “Detained,” and “Young. Wild. Free.” that premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, in which he collaborated as one of the two cinematographers in the movie. Dennis is a member of the Brazilian Society of Cinematographers (ABC), also a local 600 union DP in Los Angeles, a professional camera and steadicam operator, member of SOA. For his work on “In Absentia” he has won the “Best Cinematography” Award at the Indie Series Awards, currently on Amazon Prime. Last year, Dennis shot “Kid Ugly” for the McDonalds Spotlight Dorado competition and “For Years To Come”, both films have been accepted to several film festivals this year in the US. In 2016, Dennis was selected to take part of the Kyoto Filmmakers Lab in Japan, and the following year he participated in LA’s Film Independent’s signature diversity program: Project Involve. He also participated in the Tomorrow’s Filmmakers Today presented by HBO and The Emerging Content Creators Workshop presented by NALIP. Dennis Zanatta is a proud latino, native Portuguese speaker, fluent in Spanish and English. Having grown up in the largest city of South America, he brings a unique vision to every story he portrays and can deliver a unique style for each project. Dennis believes that collaboration is the key to achieve excellence.
Editor
Leonard Feinstein is an award-winning editor of documentary films and non-fiction TV. His work includes National Geographic Specials, HBO documentaries, and the PBS series: The American Experience, NOVA, American Masters and Craft in America. Early in his career, he edited the landmark series Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth.
Among his feature documentary credits are Darfur Now, Betting on Zero, Mona Lisa Missing, and Bitter Seeds, winner of a 2012 IDA Award. In 2019 he edited the short film Women of the Gulag, which was short-listed for an Oscar. He recently edited the critically acclaimed Netflix true-crime series The Confession Killer.
Feinstein has been nominated for the TV academy Emmy and was awarded an American Cinema Editors “Eddie” Award for his work on the reality/doc series Greensburg in 2006.
Finance Director
Valeria Chu currently serves as Agora Productions Director of Financial Affairs & Development. Valeria has been instrumental in the completion of several of Agora’s projects including JFK – A President Betrayed and The Power of the Powerless. Valeria has over 35 years of experience working as a Systems and Strategic planning team member and a consultant for S&P 500 corporations and technology startups. She has also been a community activist for several decades supporting the welfare of each community where she has lived in Northern and Southern California.
Producer
Nicole Corbin’s first independent documentary, 13 FAMILIES: LIFE AFTER COLUMBINE, was a personal look at the emotional road from loss and grief to healing, hope and inspiration for the thirteen families whose children were murdered at Columbine. Inspired in part by Corbin’s passion for children and the eradication of teen violence, the film enjoyed a long theatrical run in Colorado and was screened at multiple film festivals. After a decade of producing news for NBC, CBS, and ABC, Corbin went on to work in new media for Sony and Columbia Tri-Star Television division, where she developed interactive programming. With a commitment to journalistic integrity acquired through her years producing network news, Corbin currently produces television content, both long-form documentary and other non-scripted programming, for multiple networks, including Discovery, MSBNC, TLC, History Channel and A&E. She graduated with degrees in Broadcast Journalism and Political Science.
Showrunner
Mitch Rosa is an award-winning showrunner who has worked in non-fiction television for the past three decades. He was instrumental in developing and launching The Ultimate Fighter–the UFC competition series that brought mixed martial arts to the mainstream. He went on to executive produce 28 seasons and over 200 episodes for Spike TV, FX, and Fox Sports 1. His credits as a showrunner include Lindsey, a series on the life of Lindsey Lohan for Oprah Winfrey, American Chopper, the long-running reality drama on Discovery, Top Shot for the History Channel, Greensburg, with Leonardo DiCaprio, about a Kansas town wiped out by a tornado and rebuilt to the highest green standards, and Michael Sam, a doc series about the first openly gay NFL draftee for OWN. Mitch has worked for networks including Animal Planet, the History Channel, Planet Green, Lifetime, Discovery, OWN, HGTV, truTV, and PBS.
A product of the UCLA film school, Mitch got his start as a runner for Peter Bogdanovich before moving into non-fiction television as an editor on series including Unsolved Mysteries and Penn and Teller. As a showrunner he has supervised hundreds of hours of television, overseeing both production and post, writing scripts, handling talent, and working with networks. He excels at making a show work.
Director/Writer/Editor
Michael Chandler is the writer, director, and editor of Agora’s new film, Jack and Nikita. He is an Emmy award winning, and Oscar nominated film editor, writer, producer and director of feature and documentary films. His film credits include five Oscar nominations for Amadeus, Waldo Salt: A Screenwriter’s Journey, The Squires of San Quentin, The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers and Freedom on My Mind (Sundance Grand Jury Prize); an Emmy Award for Yosemite: The Fate of Heaven; two American Cinema Editors (ACE) Eddie Awards for Amadeus and the ABC special Can’t It Be Anyone Else? (Christopher Humanitarian Award). His most recent works include Knee Deep (Maysles Brothers Award) and Forgotten Fires (Golden Spire Award) of which Bill Moyers said, “If we wanted a real dialog about race in America, we’d start with this film.”
Assistant Producer
Max Gittelson works an Assistant Producer at Agora Productions. Max worked as a sound recordist and PA on location in Russia, Germany, Austria, Washington DC, and Massachusetts. Max has also worked in an administrative capacity at Stone Tiger Productions and in sales at Morgan Fabrics.
Director/Writer/Editor
Taylor, co-founder and executive producer for Agora Productions, is a primetime Emmy Award-winning filmmaker with 30 years of experience in documentaries and non-fiction television. His award-winning feature docs include JFK: A President Betrayed and The Power of the Powerless and Oleg Vidov. Oliver Stone said JFK was “brilliant” and the Hollywood Reporter called it “an excellent example of cinematic scholarship.” Noted for its contribution to human rights, Powerless was distributed to dissidents seeking non-violent change around the world and broadcast illegally into Myanmar on The Democratic Voice of Burma. Taylor’s award-winning documentary, A Quiet Revolution, was broadcast in more than 50 countries and his writing and editing on Oleg Vidov helped the film win Best Documentary at the Crystal Palace International Film Festival.
Taylor began his career working on the National Geographic Specials for which he received two primetime Emmy nominations. Later, he produced television specials about The Lord of the Rings for New Line Cinema and supervised different series for Discovery, Discovery Health and Animal Planet. Taylor’s work as an editor has also been featured on OWN, the History Channel, MS-NBC, NHK, Planet Green, Nat Geo, Al Jazeera and PBS. As a writer, Taylor is the co-winner of The Edgar Dale Award for Screenwriting and the author of How Hitler Was Made, published by Prometheus Books in 2018. He received his BA from UCLA in Theater, Film and Television.