Bright Lights Film Series: ‘Welcome to Chechnya’

With searing urgency, Welcome to Chechnya shadows a group of activists who risk unimaginable peril to confront the ongoing anti-LGBTQ pogrom raging in the repressive and closed Russian republic. Since 2017, Chechnya’s tyrannical leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, has waged a depraved operation to “cleanse the blood” of LGBTQ Chechens, overseeing a government-directed campaign to detain, torture, and execute them. With no help from the Kremlin and only faint global condemnation, activists take matters into their own hands. In his new documentary, David France uses a remarkable approach to anonymity to expose this atrocity and to tell the story of an extraordinary group of people confronting evil. Discussion with director David France and producer Alice Henty to follow.

Co-presented with Wicked Queer: The Boston LGBT Film Festival. Directed by David France, documentary, Russian, Chechen and English with English subtitles, 107 minutes, USA, 2020.

Registration takes place through the ArtsEmerson website starting at noon on Wednesdays. All conversations will take place on Thursdays at 8:00 p.m. EST and will stream to Cinesend. In order to facilitate more engagement with these conversations, everyone will have the option to join via Zoom and interact with guests directly. More information on how to access films and conversations can be viewed on the Bright Lights website.