LGL’Baltic Pride movie “We Can Be Gay Today” screened at EuroPride 2015

On Thursday the 18th of June, 2015, in the framework of the EuroPride 2015, the national LGBT* organization LGL screened the movie “We Can Be Gay Today” in the charming context of the Pride House, benchmark venue of many events during EuroPride.

The movie was preceded by an interesting discussion on the realization of the movie, moderated by LGL’s member Tomas Ilja. The discussion involved LGL’s Executive Director Vladimir Simonko, LGL’s Board Chair Elena Dapkūnaitė, and the makers of the movie, the “Sticky Notes” team French Director François Message and Sound Engineer Nathalie Sibille. Together, they remembered the most moving moments during the realization of the movie and dived into the behind-the-scenes and the most impactful events of the Baltic Pride 2013 in Vilnius.

The movie focused on the challenges of Baltic Pride 2013, on the mobilization it managed to foster in comparison to the Baltic Pride 2010, on the final success of the event. With interviews portraying both hateful and supportive statement and comments of national politicians and people, the movie gives an idea of the deep divisions characterizing Lithuanian society. The French Institute of Vilnius strongly supported the realization of the movie and together with the French Embassy of Lithuania already supported before the event the production of two promotional videos for Baltic Pride 2013 with the goal to raise awareness about LGBT people in Lithuania and focus on the importance of public visibility in campaigning for civil and political rights.

The discussion and the movie screening were attended by more than fifty people and among the audience it was possible to spot many protagonists appearing in the movie itself, such as the members of the US rock group Betty and many of the volunteers and LGL’s staff members who helped in the realization of the event. Participants to the event were gifted with the Baltic Pride 2013 photo-album, a work realized by LGL in 2014 thanks to the help of the Ambassador of Norway Leif Arne Ulland, who supported the project morally and financially.

eea_grants_logo_2014The event was organized as part of the project “Towards Practical Implementation of LGBT* Rights in Lithuania” which is supported by the NGO Programme Lithuania funded by EEA Grants. The project supports the implementation of the European Economic Area Financial Mechanism NGO program. The Kingdom of Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein has developed the EEA and Norwegian financial mechanisms in order to contribute to the economic and social disparities in the European Economic Area (EEA ).