About one quarter of the audience of LGBT movies are heterosexuals, shows the opinion poll carried out by the organizers of the Queer films festival "Bok-o-bok" in Saint-Petersburg. "Many straight people wrote in their questionnaires that after watching films on gays and their problems they have began to understand better the LGBT people and their problems", said Gulya Sultanova, member of the queer cinema festival organizing committee,in an interview for the "Pinx".
According to her words, "Bok-o-bok" has successfully fulfilled tasks made by its organizers. "For an instance, let's compare mass-media a year ago - there were a lot of gay hate articles. Writers did not understand the main reason of the festival and were expecting gay pride. This year mass media had more diverse points of view, was more tolerant and adequate...", reflects Ms. Sultanova on queer-movies festival's results. "We function only for two years, adds Sultanova, but during this short period of time we have managed to gather around 2 thousand viewers. In 2010 we plan to organize movie shows in the framework of queer-movie festival in 4 Russian regions. Several special events with participation of foreign and Russian well-known public figures are planned to take place later this year in Saint-Petersburg".
Translated by Yerdna Bananes