Logan Mucha’s debut feature length documentary EAST BLOC LOVE is a captivating look at the emergent LGBT rights movement in the former Soviet Bloc. When openly gay activist Sergey Yenin’s boyfriend is shot on the border, he makes the choice to join gay rights activist group “Gay- Belarus” to change his country’s oppressive policies towards the queer community.

GayBelarus, knowing they will face arrest and possibly violence at the hands of both Neo-Nazis and the police, continue to organize their gay pride demonstration. Despite public opinion that homosexuality was “imported”, these activists speak out to demand visibility and respect from their communities. In EAST BLOC LOVE, interviews with Sergey Yenin (now a political exile in Warsaw), Princess Brianna Cardaja of Romania, and Nickolai Alekseev are combined with moving and oftentimes heartbreaking images of these activists working fearlessly, and tirelessly, to foster acceptance and respect for the LGBT community in the former Soviet Bloc. —Susan Ramirez

SPONSORED BY ALBUQUERQUE PRIDE