Abstract
Over the past decade, a number of documentary films have been produced with a focus on the situation of LGBTI communities and activism in the Russian Federation. This chapter aims to engage with a small corpus of documentaries examining the aftermath of the 2013 Russian “anti-gay propaganda” bill as a way to critically engage with how documentaries depict the promotion of human rights in a country that continues to be labelled as homophobic and hostile to LGBTI individuals. In this chapter, I examine three documentaries filmed in Russia: Hunted: The War Against Gays in Russia (2014), which documents the violent repression that gay men have faced at the hands of vigilantes in Putin’s Russia; Campaign of Hate: Russia and Gay Propaganda (2014) depicting the struggles against societal and political homophobia; and, Children-404 (2014), examining how LGBT youth have found refuge through social networking platforms VKontakte and Facebook.
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Notes
- 1.
Within the context of this paper, I choose to place the term “gay propaganda” in scare quotes because of its nebulous nature. Elizaveta Gaufman notes that the word “propaganda” has negative undertones in the Russian context, referring to plots to destroy the state from within. This gay “fifth column” within the Russian nation “implies a centralized effort at promoting a certain sexuality that caters to the conspiracy theory minded.” I expand on this further in my analysis of the three documentaries central to this essay. See: Gaufman (2016, p. 149).
- 2.
A thorough analysis of the full social and legal impact of the legislation can be found in a legal opinion by the UK-based charity Article 19.
- 3.
In the context of this paper, I do not go into modes of cinematic production, documentary film theory, or the films’ circulations in film festivals and on streaming media platforms. In particular, their reception among Western audiences is an area for possible future research.
- 4.
Healey’s Russian Homophobia from Stalin to Sochi (2017) opens with a concise description of the historical context for the bill, including precursor legislation that had passed in various regional governments and served as the model for the federal bill.
- 5.
The Lithuanian law, known as the Law on the Protection of Minors Against the Detriment Effect of Public Information, has resulted in three court cases, though it has not had an impact on public demonstrations in the country. For more information in the Lithuanian legislation, see: “LGBT* Rights in Lithuania,” LGL, http://www.lgl.lt/en/?page_id=199; for the background on the situation for LGBT rights in Ukraine, including the withdrawal of the anti-gay propaganda bill, see: Martsenyuk (2016).
- 6.
Translation is the author’s own.
- 7.
Milonov is known for his frequent tirades against the LGBT community in Russia. Most recently, he called in a fake hostage report to the St. Petersburg police as a way to prevent the showing of the opening night film at the Бок-а-бок (Side-by-Side) LGBT International Film Festival held in the city. See: “Anti-Gay Russian MP” (2018), “Russian Legislator” (2018).
- 8.
Cinema Politica notes in a short news release for the documentary’s premiere at the Hot Docs Canadian International Film Festival in 2014 that the filmmakers approached the organisation for support. Cinema Politica created a crowdfunding campaign “to raise essential funds for this project, whose financing would have been not only impossible but illegal within the Russian [F]ederation.” See: “CP Supported Children 404 to Premiere at HotDocs 2014,” Cinema Politica, https://www.cinemapolitica.org/blog/network/cp-supported-children-404-premiere-hotdocs-2014.
- 9.
Ulyanovsk is a small, provincial town on the Volga River, approximately 700 km east of Moscow.
- 10.
A significant point of interrogation has been the supposition that there was no homosexuality in the Soviet Union. Work by scholars including Igor Kon (1993, 2009), Laurie Essig (1999), Brian James Baer (2012), Katja Sarajeva (2011), and Masha Gessen (2017a) have dismantled this myth and explained its symbolism in contemporary Russia.
- 11.
VK refers to VKontakte, a social network that is the Russian equivalent of Facebook.
- 12.
Бок-а-бок (Side-by-Side) is held annually in St. Petersburg and Moscow, though smaller versions of the festival have occurred in other major Russian cities, including Perm, Tomsk, and Arkhangel’sk, among others.
- 13.
Similarly, Dan Healey opens his introduction to Russian Homophobia from Stalin to Sochi with a discussion of the murder.
- 14.
For this essay, I have consulted several independent Russian media outlets, primarily relying on Novaya Gazeta and Meduza. Of note, the latter is based in Riga, Latvia, though its primary focus is the Russian Federation.
- 15.
Of note, the Centre for Independent Social Research receives foreign funding and has been registered as a “foreign agent” as required by the Russian Federal Ministry of Justice. The Heinrich Böll Foundation partially funds Kondakov’s project.
- 16.
See Svetski, “Я ГЕЙ! МОЙ КАМИНГ-АУТ | ЛГБТ революция в России /Zhenya Svetski - coming out,” Youtube.com, 19 April 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vy0brXrn_Ak&t=17s.
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Glenn, C. (2020). Mы нe oшибкa (We Are Not an Error): Documentary Film and LGBT Activism Against the Russian Anti-“Gay Propaganda” Campaign. In: Buyantueva, R., Shevtsova, M. (eds) LGBTQ+ Activism in Central and Eastern Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20401-3_4
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