The UCLA Department of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Languages and Cultures (SEEELC), in collaboration with the UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television, the UCLA Center for European and Russian Studies (CERS), and the UCLA Luskin Center for History and Policy, invites you to a screening of Agniia Galdanova’s dissident Russian documentary film “Queendom,” which will be followed by a Q&A session with the director. View the trailer here.

Film Synopsis

Gena, 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, Gena 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. Their performances – often dark, strange, evocative, and queer at their core – are a manifestation of Gena’s subconscious. But they come at a price.

About the Director

Agniia Galdanova is a Sundance and IDFA-supported documentary film director. Her previous film, “One Step Forward, One Step Back,” about a family’s dream to live far from civilization in the Altai Mountains, premiered at the Message to Man International Film Festival. Her work focuses on complex human relationships told through immersive observational language. Her new film QUEENDOM about a young queer artist Gena Marvin premiered at SXSW 2023 in Documentary Competition.