East/West - Sex & Politics (2008)

Nicolai Alekseev, Volker Beck, Evgenia Debrianskaya, Sergei Golovach, Peter Tatchell

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia has been a nation that has rejected socialism but has yet to fully embrace democracy, and the notion of fair and equal treatment for all has yet to be realiz... read more ed, especially for the country's gay and lesbian citizens. While homosexuality is no longer against the law in Russia (as it once was) and Vladimir Putin has publicly addressed the issue of gay rights, during his tenure as mayor of Moscow Yuri Lushkov was outspoken in his condemnation of the city's GLBT community, and in 2006 and 2007 police used violence to break up gay pride marches under his orders. Filmmaker Jochen Hick explores the struggle for Russian gays and lesbians to win political, economic and social equality in the documentary East/West -- Sex and Politics, which features footage of Moscow's 2006 and 2007 Christopher Street Day parades that ended with police clashes and features interviews with the movers and shakers in the Russian Gay Pride movement. The film was an official entry at the 2008 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi