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Russian gay pride day documentary triggers security alert

February 20th, 2007 by Zsofia

Last week’s screening of the documentary “Moskva Pride ’06” at the Berlinale trigerred a major security alert after festival organizers received threats prior to the first screening. Russian director Vladimir Ivanov’s film chronicles the story of Moscow’s first gay pride parade in May 2006, in which protesters clashed with gay activists after the march was banned by the authorities. The filmmakers commented that the threats were a grim reminder of intolerance even in places like Berlin. The film’s producer, Nikolai Alekseev, told the Berlinale audience he doubts that the documentary will ever be shown on Russian television. “We expect that the film will be screened at other film festivals in different countries and after that we will release it on DVD.”