On 19 April, the Sunny Bunny Queer Film Festival started at the Zhovten Cinema in Kyiv and will run until 25 April. The aim of the festival is to be a visible representative of the LGBTQIA+ community, to promote equality in Ukraine, and to analyse world LGBTQIA+ cinema. Lirum is a media partner of the event, so we’re going to tell you how the opening night went.
The evening began with gratitude to the Ukrainian Defence Forces and a minute of silence to honour the memory of the fallen Ukrainian military and civilians. The organisers reminded that thousands of queer soldiers defend Ukraine. As a token of gratitude, the festival offers a special free pass for military personnel. They can apply to the festival’s accreditation desk any day until 25 April, present a document confirming their service in the army and receive their pass.
The ceremony was hosted by Oleksiy Ananov, a TV presenter and curator of the Cinema Space at the Ukrainian House. The guests of the evening included festival ambassadors Nadiya Shapoval (Ukrainian cultural researcher, stylist, model, content creator and founder of the Nadiia brand), Zhenya Goncharenko (dancer, choreographer, member of the Dorofeeva ballet, teacher, founder of the Stoylo clothing brand), senior soldier of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Vladyslav Aprelov, artist and laureate of the Taras Shevchenko National Prize Zhanna Kadyrova, Svitlana Nemonezhyna (comedian, resident of the Underground Standup, author of the Dog Standup project, participant of the TV show League of Laughter) and Yulia Yurina, Ukrainian artist and folklorist.
The organisers reminded us that Sunny Bunny grew out of the queer film programme of the same name at the Molodist Film Festival, which has existed since 2001. In general, Molodist Film Festival began promoting queer cinema in the 1990s
“I hope that this festival will be interesting for a very wide audience – for those people who may see these films for the first time and realise that not only people like them should be in this world, that people should be different – in their preferences, in their religion, in their political views. When selecting films for this festival, our team tried to choose films not only based on their subject matter, but to choose films that are art, and that we call cinema, and that we love it for,” said Andriy Khalpakhchi, the founder of the Sunny Bunny competition programme and the general director of Molodist IFF.
The festival was opened by the Ukrainian co-production documentary Queens of Joy. The film was directed by Olga Gibelinda. “Queens of Joy is her feature-length debut. The film is produced by Ivanna Khitsinska (for Malanka Studios, Ukraine), Louis Boudemais (Les Steppes Productions, France) and Hana Blaga Šilarová (Film & Chips, Czech Republic). In addition, the film was supported by UA:PBC (producers on behalf of the broadcaster are Serhiy Nedzelskyi, Natalia Movshovych and Alyona Golyakova).
The film was presented by the director, the film’s producers Ivanna Khitsinska and Louis Budemo, almost the entire film crew, and the film’s protagonists: activist and blogger Monroe, drag artist and soldier Arthur Ozerov (Aura) and Oleksandr Danilin (Marlen Scandal), as well as Artem Shtanko (Biology) and Vitaliy Pelikhov (Joan of Arc).
“For me, Queens of Joy is a movie about freedom, about identity, about the fact that everyone deserves to be happy and have the right to be happy, regardless of their circumstances. This is a film about Ukrainians, about our identity, nationality, gender and sexual orientation. It is about freedom, about the will to be unique, about our values. It is for these values, for our way of life, that we are now fighting on the frontline and on the cultural front,” emphasized the film’s director Olga Gibelinda.
The documentary tells how, in times of full-scale war, they unite to organize a charity drag show in support of Ukraine and its defenders, proving that art and culture can be a powerful weapon of resistance and solidarity.
The film has just had its world premiere at the Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival. The film is to be released in Ukraine in the fall.
The Sunny Bunny Film Festival is supported by the Ukrainian State Film Agency, the International Renaissance Foundation, the European Union, the Heinrich Boell Foundation in Ukraine, the British Council, and in partnership with the Goethe-Institut in Ukraine. Supported by German Films, Ukrainian product IT company appflame, Jagermeister.
Source: Lirum
