Organizers of "Artdocfest" decide to show films about Chechen gays online

The "Artdocfest" festival has posted the film "Welcome to Chechnya" about the persecution of gays on its online platform; they are also preparing an online screening of the documentary "Quiet Voice". In Moscow, "the rules of life are dictated from Chechnya," said the programme director of the festival in connection with the pressure on the organizers.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the director of the "Quiet Voice" telling about the fate of a Chechen gay, presented at the Russian documentary film festival "Artdocfest", was forced to close his account in a social network after he received threats from anonymous users.

According to Vitaly Mansky, the "Artdocfest" has organized the screening of the film "Welcome to Chechnya" on its online platform "ArtdocMedia". "The film not only refutes the idea that 'there can't be any gays in Chechnya,' but also convincingly testifies to the horror of being a Chechen gay. We are working to open an online screening of the 'Quiet Voice' film," the film director wrote on the Facebook.

"The fact that the rules of life in Moscow are now dictated from Chechnya is important news for all Russians, I think," said Victoria Belopolskaya, Programme Director of the "Artdocfest", as quoted by the "Novaya Gazeta" newspaper.

According to Timur Bulatov, the fighter against gays, it was he who had initiated the checks by the police and the "Rospotrebnadzor" (Russian Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Welfare), by having complained about the documentary "Quiet Voice" included into the festival's programme.