Marusya Bociurkiw, LGBTQ activist and director of the Studio for Media Activism and Critical Thought at Ryerson University in Toronto will present her film, This Is Gay Propaganda, a documentary from the perspective of LGBT Ukrainians, that follows the progress of the Euromaidan revolution, and the Russian occupation that followed.
Bociurkiw, a Canadian of Ukrainian descent, traveled to three Ukrainian cities in 2014, tracking the impact of Russia’s “gay propaganda law,” in Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine. There are now some 2 million internally displaced people in Ukraine, and LGBT people compose a significant part of that population. Meet Alexandra, whose face was on a “wanted” poster plastered across the city of Donetsk; Anna, a lesbian activist who witnessed Russian-backed violence in the border town of Kharkiv; Olena, who taught women’s self-defense classes during Euromaidan and now fights the spread of anti-gay laws in Eastern Europe. From harrowing accounts of escape and exile to stories of creative resistance, this film shows a side of the conflict in Ukraine the world has not yet seen.
Bociurkiw will also be available for a discussion on video activism on Friday, April 6, 1:00 p.m. at Buckham Hall B145.
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