Queendom by Agniia Galdanova (2024 | 98 min). A Film Screening and Discussion. Thursday, March 6, 6:30 pm. Elizabeth Hemmerdinger Center (706 Hunter East). Co-hosted by RUSA LGBTQ+. Free and open to the public.
In defiance of Russia’s anti-LGBTQ laws, Jenna (she/her, non-binary), a queer artist from a small town in Russia, dresses in otherworldly costumes made from junk and tape, and protests the government on the streets of Moscow.Born and raised on the harsh streets of Magadan, a frigid outpost of the Soviet gulag, Jenna is only 21. She stages radical performances in public that become a new form of art and activism. By doing that, she wants to change people’s perception of beauty and queerness and bring attention to the harassment of the LGBTQ+ community. The performances – often dark, strange, evocative, and queer at their core – are a manifestation of Jenna’s subconscious. But they come at a price.
The event is co-hosted by RUSA LGBTQ+, a NYC community-based nonprofit organization of Eurasian LGBTQ+ people, women, and others with intersectional identities and their allies.
Igor Myakotin is an Emmy-nominated, BAFTA-winning filmmaker who produced the feature-length documentary Queendom (2023), which had its world premiere at SXSW 2023 and won the NEXT:WAVE Jury Award at CPH:DOX in Copenhagen. Igor also co-produced Welcome to Chechnya (2020), which HBO acquired before its world premiere in a 2020 Sundance Film Festival documentary competition. Welcome to Chechnya has also been awarded the Peabody Award and BAFTA and received an Emmy nomination. Igor is a 2022 Sundance Producing Fellow and was named as one of the “40 Under 40” working in the documentary industry by DOC NYC. He believes that cinema is not a way to escape reality but a way to embrace it with all its peculiarities and its darkness.
Roman Utkin is an associate professor at Wesleyan University. He specializes in twentieth-century Russian and Soviet poetry, prose, and visual culture and is the author of Charlottengrad: Russian Culture in Weimar Berlin (University of Wisconsin Press, 2023). Roman is currently at work on his next book, Queer Russia: Genealogies of Difference from the Silver Age to Perestroika. A native speaker of both Tatar and Russian, Roman has served on the board of the Committee on Advocacy for Diversity and Inclusion within the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. He is also a founding member of Q*ASEEES, the Society for the Promotion of LGBTQ Studies in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Roman was educated in Russia and the United States, earning an undergraduate degree in philology at Kazan State University and a Ph.D. in Slavic languages and literatures at Yale University.
Yaya Simakov is a Russian-American screenwriter and director. She is an assistant professor of film studies at Wesleyan University. Yaya's directing debut, Keep It Quiet, won Best Live Action Short at the Warsaw Film Festival (Oscar-qualifying), was nominated for Best U.S. Short at the Palm Springs ShortFest, and selected as a Vimeo Staff Pick after its online premiere on Short of the Week and Directors' Library. Yaya has a background in lighting and cinematography and experience in producing and editing. Currently, Yaya is finishing post-production on a new short film, co-produced with Stereotactic.
Maxim Ibadov is a Brooklyn-born, Moscow-raised activist, events producer, performing artist, and educator. Maxim’s advocacy and activism go back to 2012, when they were a middle schooler in Russia protesting against corruption and bigotry. They moved to the United States that same year and pursued a career in performing arts, graduating from Baruch College with a double degree in English and Arts Administration in Theatre. During the pandemic, Maxim has shifted from theater to nightlife, producing community-focused events that celebrate the LGBTQIA community and raise awareness about issues ranging from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to transgender rights and racial justice. This has led to Maxim becoming the first coordinator for RUSA LGBTQ, where they oversee in-person events, manage media and other inquiries, lead a team of volunteers, and do other tasks. In addition to RUSA, Maxim also teaches theater to elementary and middle school students in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.
Directions: Hunter College is at the corner of East 68th Street and Lexington Avenue (6 train). At the reception desk of the Hunter West Building, please present your ID to get a pass. From there, take the escalator to the 3rd floor, turn right and walk across the sky bridge to the Hunter East Building, then take the elevator to the 7th floor. Hemmerdinger Center is at the end of the hallway past the turnstiles.