Coming to DVD tomorrow, Tuesday, April 1: CAMPAIGN OF HATE: RUSSIA AND GAY PROPAGANDA
Michael Lucas’ exploration of homophobia in his native Russia has bypassed festivals to make its debut on DVD. Co-directed with Scott Stern, the film will also be available on VOD in May via its distributor, Breaking Glass Pictures.
Lucas, well-known as a gay porn director, star, and entrepreneur, as well as an outspoken and often controversial political activist, trades on his notoriety to help expose the realities of LGBT life in Putin’s Russia, appearing onscreen throughout as an at times bilingual interviewer. The use of on-screen interviewers in docs is generally a clunky device, lending a TV news magazine feel, and that’s the case here, especially because, unless the viewer already is familiar with Lucas, his Russian background, or his body of work, the documentary offers none of that context. While this surprising restraint of ego perhaps might make the film somewhat more palatable to a more mainstream audience, it robs it of some specificity and voice. That said, Lucas does gain access to a wide range of subjects, from Vitaly Milonov, the principle legislator responsible for Russia’s horrendous gay propaganda law, to Anton Krasovsky, a TV news anchor who lost his job after coming out on air, as well as numerous everyday Russian citizens, gay and straight. While his survey approach is workmanlike, the content of the interviews he conducts effectively demonstrates the scapegoating of LGBT people by a cynical and corrupt regime, and the dehumanization, persecution, and humiliation that has resulted.
