Queendom
Gena, a queer artist from a small town in Russia, dresses in otherworldly costumes made from junk and tape, and protests the government on the streets of Moscow. Born and raised on the harsh streets of Magadan, a frigid outpost of the Soviet gulag, Gena is only 21. She stages radical performances in public that become a new form of art and activism. By doing that, she wants to change people’s perception of beauty and queerness and bring attention to the harassment of the LGBTQ+ community. The performances—often dark, strange, evocative, and queer at their core — are a manifestation of Gena’s subconscious. But they come at a price.
Agniia Galdanova is a Sundance and IDFA-supported documentary film director. Her first feature-length documentary One Step Forward, One Step Back (2020) premiered at Message to Man International Film Festival. Galdanova’s latest film Queendom (2023), about the young queer artist Gena Marvin, premiered at SXSW in 2023 and is currently screening at festivals around the world. Queendom received the NEXT:WAVE Jury Award at CPH:DOX last year.