Brittney Griner says new documentary feels like a warning for America
WNBA star Brittney Griner believes her upcoming documentary about surviving imprisonment in Russia lands at a moment when many Americans are more ready to hear its message. Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Griner said the film reflects her concerns about the current climate in the United States, particularly amid heightened immigration enforcement and political tension.
With her 30 for 30 documentary set to premiere Tuesday night at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival before airing later this year on ESPN, Griner said she hopes the project will “shed some light” on what the country could become “if we keep letting this happen.”
“Right now, we’re in a very bad place, especially with everything that’s going on in Minnesota and just across our country,” Griner told the outlet. “I definitely think people will understand a little bit more now and be able to see some comparisons.”
The film, titled The Brittney Griner Story and directed by Alexandria Stapleton, chronicles Griner’s ten months in Russian custody, including time spent in a penal colony known for harsh conditions. It also traces her upbringing, her relationship with her wife Cherelle, and her basketball journey. While her years at Baylor and her WNBA career are featured, the documentary places special focus on her seven seasons playing in Russia before her arrest.
Stapleton echoed Griner’s view that the documentary feels newly urgent.
“When we started, so much of BG’s story was still very foreign,” Stapleton said. “And now to rewatch it and be in the midst of everything that’s exploding in Minnesota and all throughout the United States, it’s crazy. I hope people can watch this story and see it as a cautionary tale … almost knock some sense into people.
“Hopefully, this can be a film that can make a change.” Griner added, “I hope people get the sense of, ‘When we come together, we can stop what’s going on.’ We can change what’s going on right now in our country.”
Griner has been open about the trauma she endured in detention. On Cam Newton’s “Funky Friday” podcast, she described how inmates were housed together regardless of their crimes and recalled a disturbing experience with a former cellmate.
“I had a cellmate in the very beginning. I thought something was off with her,” Griner said. “She acted like a child, but she was a grown woman… And that’s who they had me in a cell with.
“The mattress had a huge blood stain on it. I had no soap, no toilet paper. That was the moment where I just felt less than a human,” she later told ABC News’ Good Morning America.
Griner was arrested in February 2022 after realizing vape cartridges were in her luggage at a Russian airport. She was sentenced to nine years and sent to a penal colony about 300 miles outside Moscow. After ten months, she was freed in a prisoner exchange brokered by then-Joe Biden.
Griner said Biden became “definitely a personal hero of mine” for securing her release. The documentary also notes she wrote to Biden advocating for others still imprisoned, including Marine veteran Paul Whelan.
Now entering her 13th WNBA season, the nine-time All-Star continues her career with the Atlanta Dream, carrying both her athletic legacy and the weight of her story forward.
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