The good and horrible drag queen Jenna Marvin from Russia conquers the States (VIDEO)

The documentary movie “Queendom” concerning the destiny of the Russian queer artist Jenna Marvin was launched in cinemas in New York, Los Angeles and plenty of different US cities. The movie, directed by Agnia Galdanova, was proven at many worldwide movie festivals and acquired enthusiastic responses from the press and viewers. The movie acquired one of many awards on the SXSW pageant in Austin. Greenwich Leisure can also be offering streaming leases for the movie.

A local of Magadan, raised within the house of her grandparents, Jenna glided by the title Gennady Chebotarev and went by means of many trials earlier than establishing herself as a non-binary individual and a radical inventive individual.

When Russia launched a large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Jenna staged a protest present of kinds on the streets of Moscow in an extravagant costume. With nice problem, she managed to keep away from repression by escaping from Russia. She settled in Paris, the place she is attempting to construct her profession as a drag queen.

The producer of the movie was Igor Myakotin, identified for his work on the documentary “Welcome to Chechnya!” concerning the operation to rescue gays from the North Caucasus.

Director Agniya Galdanova spent a very long time observing the event of Jenna’s persona, her views on life and artwork. Her public performances brought on a scandal, whether or not in Magadan or Moscow. Clashes with the police occurred increasingly usually, and the response of the authorities turned extra extreme, in order that she started to treat going overseas as the one solution to salvation.

“An pressing reminder that making artwork generally is a harmful endeavor,” writes Empire Journal. Time Out journal referred to as Galdanova’s movie “the most effective movies of the yr.” Movie critic Sight and Sound calls the movie “extraordinary, each visually and politically.”

Director Agniya Galdanova and producer Igor Myakotin answered questions from a correspondent of the Russian service of the Voice of America through Zoom.

Oleg Sulkin: Your movie was proven at a number of influential unbiased and artwork movie festivals, together with screenings in Austin and Rotterdam, and acquired a number of awards. How is the movie acquired in numerous international locations? Are there variations in notion?

Agniya Galdanova: We are able to say that we’re fortunate with festivals. The response from the viewers is solely phenomenal. Folks in South Korea, Greece, Italy and different international locations spoke out passionately in help of the movie and its main girl. A variety of viewers, whether or not members of the LGBTQ+ group or individuals from the mainstream, spoke positively.

OS: By the best way, what’s one of the best ways to translate the title of the movie Queendom into Russian?

A.G.: Tough query. I got here up with this title following I was planning to movie a miniseries concerning the drag queen subculture. And she or he saved it when the concept for the collection fell away. There may be an English phrase kingdom – kingdom, it comes from the phrase king (king) of the masculine gender, and I used the phrase queen (queen) of the female gender as the unique phrase (In South Korea in 2019-2022, the serial actuality present Queendom was filmed for TV. – O.S.).

OS: Agnia, how did you discover Jenna?

A.G.: I met Jenna – then Gennady, Gena – following I was amassing materials for a documentary collection and on the lookout for an acceptable protagonist. We’ve already checked out a number of candidates earlier than her. However following I first met Jenna, one thing clicked, and I spotted that additional search might be stopped. I acknowledged myself in her, solely at a youthful age. We frolicked collectively with out in any respect occupied with making a film. I used to be initially drawn to her persona traits, her capacity so as to add artistry to all the things she touched. We sat in her house and talked. She collected some type of rubbish on the road, and following a couple of hours an unimaginable headdress was born in her arms.

OS: How did Russia’s large-scale conflict in opposition to Ukraine have an effect on you and your mates?

A.G.: The conflict had a really direct affect. We had been pressured to depart Russia. We started to consider the right way to act within the new situations, how to not lose what we had achieved. If you stay in Russia, you perceive all the things all the way down to the smallest nuance. Residing in Europe, you largely lose this deep imaginative and prescient. Nonetheless, I proceed to consider that my future is to inform tales which can be attention-grabbing to our viewers in Russia and on this planet.

OS: Igor, was it tough to seek out funding for such an uncommon challenge? Had been you involved concerning the security of the crew members?

Igor Myakotin: A number of cultural and media organizations from completely different international locations helped us. As for safety, its provision was of nice concern to us for apparent causes. There are many haters of sexual minorities in Russia. We tried to plan all the things upfront. However Jenna is so unimaginable and magnetic that she instantly gathered crowds of individuals round her. We thought by means of a backup plan in case of unexpected developments. Our legal professionals had been at all times available if their help is likely to be wanted. We tried to supply Jenna with a spare set of garments in case she wanted to rapidly change garments.

OS: The world of transgender individuals and drag queens is a type of crossroads of maximum artwork and an equally excessive life-style. We are able to say that Jenna embodies essentially the most radical mixture of those two ideas. Earlier than your eyes is a efficiency captured by your digicam on the day the conflict started, when Jenna’s tall bare determine was wrapped in a mesh paying homage to barbed wire. In your opinion, what’s extra in all this – surprising artwork or a pointy political assertion?

A.G.: It’s tough to attract particular conclusions. Most likely there may be each. On the very starting of our collaboration, the emphasis on artwork was extra noticeable. However step by step the political part grew and intensified in her installations and artwork actions. You solely have to have a look at Jenna Marvin’s Instagram web page to see how necessary message is to her. She’s evolving, she’s altering, she’s shifting ahead, and we’re seeing her develop as an artist and as an individual. It was extremely attention-grabbing to be round her.

OS: I keep in mind the late Nineties, my first years of dwelling within the USA, following I first noticed the homosexual satisfaction parade on Fifth Avenue. It was an actual carnival – cheerful, proud, colourful and surprising to unaccustomed eyes. I watched your movie and for a second I spotted the inconceivable – a homosexual satisfaction parade in Moscow. There may be an expressive episode within the movie when a Russian marine advises Jenna to rapidly get out of the realm the place his drunken, aggressive colleagues are celebrating their skilled vacation. You may say Jenna was within the worst place on the worst time, proper?

I.M.: Sure, a crowd of radicalized Marines isn’t essentially the most appropriate viewers for a gathering with Jenna. However, you see, you will discover an identical crowd in America. And never solely in America, however in every single place on this planet. Such sentiments are particularly amplified in international locations with autocratic regimes, which encourage individuals to assault members of the LGBTQ+ group. If you consider it, Jenna was solely expressing her views in accordance with the constitutional proper to free speech. In Russia that is now very tough to do and threatens with beatings and jail.

A.G.: On Jenna’s half it was a type of provocation. A really harmful provocation for her. On their vacation, these guys (Marines) get very drunk and grow to be very violent and vulnerable to violence. I applaud Jenna for her braveness and willingness to face up for her beliefs. At the price of nice danger, she taught Russian society tolerance and demanding pondering, which society actually wants. It is unhappy to see Russia slipping once more into an archaic previous. And the simplest goal for haters of the brand new is the LGBTQ+ group. It’s insanity to repeat earlier errors as soon as once more, however as we speak it is a harsh actuality.

OS: Your mentor, documentary grasp Marina Razbezhkina, teaches her college students immersion into actuality and the flexibility to watch the stream of life whereas remaining a “fly on the wall.” Have you ever had any circumstances whenever you requested your protagonists to repeat a dialogue or motion, to play one thing on digicam, like in a function movie?

A.G.: No, by no means. Earlier than I had time to {photograph} one thing necessary, properly, no, no. Be affected person and look ahead to the best second. Marina Razbezhkina taught us endurance. I mightn’t affect the content material of Jenna’s phone dialog along with her grandfather, however I may ask her to name him, for instance, an hour earlier. This was the place my affect ended.

OS: How did Jenna’s relations deal with you?

A.G.: On our first go to to Magadan, the angle was very pleasant. However on the second go to, the angle modified. Clouds started to assemble round Jenna, and the ambiance in the home turned tense. However her household are extraordinarily type individuals, and we maintained a superb relationship, particularly since Jenna gave us carte blanche to movie. However we didn’t abuse their softness. If grandma mentioned that she didn’t wish to be filmed at one time or one other, we complied and turned off the digicam.

OS: Jenna is a really brilliant and artistic character. Do you might have any plans to make a sequel regarding her new life within the West?

A.G.: Not but. However we’re in nearly each day contact. She made new attention-grabbing acquaintances in Paris. Participates in Vogue Week, and I’m certain that in 5 years we might have the chance to congratulate Jenna on her nice inventive success. There are, following all, unhappy moments within the movie, however its most important motive is hope for change for the higher.

O.S.: What’s necessary to you within the viewers’s response?

A.G.: Willingness to be extra tolerant and do good. Don’t skimp on exhibiting love in the direction of these closest to you, which we regularly neglect. The theme of the movie is common, and in numerous cities of the world every kind of individuals got here as much as us following the screening and cried from an extra of emotions. I keep in mind one viewer in South Korea acknowledged himself in Jenna’s grandfather. We stood for a very long time within the cinema hall, and he cried on my shoulder.

I.M.: It is vital to not take all good issues as a right. And admire what you might have as we speak, as a result of tomorrow it will not be there.