Filmmaker Agniia Galdanova has discussed the dangers and aftermath of making her award-winning documentary Queendom.
The film centres on Gena, a young queer artist from a small town in Russia who puts herself at risk as she protests the government through radical performances that highlight harassment of the LGBTQ+ community and embody a new form of activism.
Speaking on stage at the DMZ Documentary International Film Festival (DMZ Docs) in South Korea, where the feature received its Asian premiere, Galdanova explained that she first encountered Gena while researching a docu-series about drag queens from places in Russia where “the mood is less open in big cities like Moscow or Saint Petersburg”. One of Gena’s charms as a protagonist, Galdanova said, is her humour in the face of tough situations.
“I think one of the strongest ways to protect yourself from the harsh outside world is to take it less seriously and laugh about it,” said the director. “In dangerous situations, Gena becomes very easy-going, which gives her even more strength.”
Dangerous situations became a more frequent occurrence as the making of the film progressed into 2022 and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a development Galdanova “never predicted or expected to last so long”.
As Gena joined the protests in provocative costumes, both subject and director ran the risk of arrest, forcing Galdanova to take very creative precautions: “There’s a scene where Gena gets arrested, which we expected. I also expected to be arrested, so we came up with the idea of putting our cinematographer on roller skates so he could escape the police.”
The film is a US-France co-production, which received its world premiere in competition at SXSW and won the Next:Wave Award at CPH:DOX, where the St. Petersburg-born director declared at the awards ceremony: “Fuck Putin!”. Sales are handled by Dogwoof and it will go on to play in competition at the Zurich and BFI London film festivals.
What happened next
At DMZ Docs, where the film played in the international competition, Galdanova discussed the film following a screening with South Korean LGBTQ+ activist, writer Park Edhi and film critic Cho Hyeyoung.
The filmmaker explained that the central relationship in the film is between Gena and her grandparents, who raised Gena after the death of her parents. The film shows a sometimes tense and verbally abusive relationship, which culminates in a kind of understanding once Gena has fled Russia for France.
“I see the last phone call (between them) as a good ending because in their own, way they try to express acceptance somehow. I think this phone call was full of love, even if not verbally expressed, it’s definitely there,” she said.
“I’m thankful for her grandparents, because they accepted me in their home and let me be there with them. I became a part of the story, because it’s not true when people say docs capture reality once you enter room you change reality.”
She added that following the completion of the film, while Gena’s grandmother has passed away, her grandfather has become more understanding, recently wiring Gena money for “a new pair of high heels” – something unthinkable at the beginning of Queendom’s narrative.
Next for Galdanova is a narrative feature about her identity, which she is writing now. Meanwhile, Gena has been granted asylum in France, and is able to move freely around Europe. She soon hopes to receive travel documents, which would allow to attend screenings at international festivals.
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