Gay Pride has been celebrated in the U.S. for more than 40 years, but in the former Soviet Bloc, the LGBT community still battles fierce public and governmental opposition to the demonstration or celebration of homosexuality.

Shot on location in six Eastern European countries, Australian filmmaker Logan Mucha’s documentary debut focuses chiefly on the small country of Belarus — considered by many to be the last dictatorship in Europe — and LGBT organization GayBelarus. Established in 2009, GayBelarus operates illegally and clandestinely through the determined efforts of a small group of brave gay activists fighting for equality and seeking to change their country’s stereotypes of homosexuality. Mucha follows this courageous cabal of freedom fighters as they prepare for Slavic Pride, the first Pride event to be staged in Belarus. Despite a ban by the authorities, GayBelarus continues its Pride preparations, knowing that their efforts will likely result in either neo-Nazi beatings or arrests by the police (or both). But not everyone in the Eastern European LGBT communities supports the idea of public Pride and still struggles with the notion of visibility. From Romania to Poland, Latvia to Estonia, Mucha tracks varying viewpoints, including many who think their countries are still not ready for Pride and question how — or whether — to be public about their homosexuality.

Preceded by

The Other Parade

Green isn’t playing nicely with the rest of the rainbow in The Other Parade, which follows Irish immigrant and gay rights activist Brendan Fay as he fights for inclusion in New York City’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade.