The Black Cat Cinema Series is a queer cinephile’s dream. It is a monthly queer cinema screening series in LA . Queer films for queer audiences curated by queer filmmakers. Show Up and Show Out!
Every screening at Black Cat is special for that very reason… but this one coming up on October 6, is particularly special, because this time they will be celebrating the voices of queer filmmakers from Ukraine — artists who have had the double courage of making openly DIY queer films in the midst of a brutal invasion their country never asked for. They will be screening 5 powerful and diverse short films curated by Bohdan Zhuk, the director of SUNNY BUNNY, Ukraine’s First LGBTQIA+ Film Festival, then afterwards, they will be showing a taped Q&A with Bohdan and three of the five filmmakers!
One of the movies. being screened is SIMEIZ by Anton Shebetko. It’s a small village on the southern coast of Crimea, which is temporarily occupied by Russia. In the Soviet era, an underground gay resort arose in the village. It started with a small nudist beach; a popular bar and nightclub, Hedgehogs, appeared later in independent Ukraine. From the 1990s on, Simeiz became a significant meeting point for members of the LGBTQ+ community from Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. Every year, about 4,000 people visited the place before the temporary occupation of Crimea by Russia in 2014. At the moment, Simeiz, as a gay resort, is threatened with disappearance due to the homophobic laws of the Russian Federation. If this happens, old photos and videos will be the only evidence of its existence and extinction.
| The other films in QUEER UKRAINIAN SHORTS: A Night to Celebrate and Support SUNNY BUNNY Film Fest – 96 min are:- -With Love Koptev (2023), dir. Olya Koval, Yelyzaveta Sherstnova, 8′ -Crimea (2023), dir. Kateryna Khramtsova, 10′ -What Will You Do When the War Continues? (2025), dir. Vladyslav Plisetskiy, 38′ -Before Curfew (2023), dir. Angelik Ustymenko, 23’ |
WHEN: Monday, October 6th – 7:30 pm
WHERE: Look Dine-In Cinemas – Glendale
TICKETS: https://www.lookcinemas.com/movie/1001/6500
All of the money from the tickets will go to supporting Sunny Bunny and their mission to keep promoting Ukrainian queer filmmakers. And if you can’t make it, please consider donating to Sunny Bunny –
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