Cinema Politica Mondays: Documentary Children 404 shows how anti-gay law endangers Russian LGBT teens

Image from the Russian documentary film Children 404

Countries are often called Motherland or Fatherland. How sad is it when a country can’t love and accept all of her children equally? How sad is it when flesh-and-blood parents turn their backs on their own children and say things like: “You are not normal, you are sick, why did I ever give birth to you?” Or worse yet: “You are a son of Satan!”

The documentary film Children 404 presents compelling evidence that homophobia is rampant in Russia, and that a law passed in 2013 has encouraged anti-gay vigilantes while also keeping many already wary and isolated teens in the closet.

This law bans propaganda about “non-traditional sexual relationships,” aimed at minors. In effect, that means that it’s illegal to offer support to gay teens – to tell them that they are normal, that they are not freaks of nature, and that they are “not the only one” – that there are many other people around the world just like them.

The film is named for the web site Children 404 (Deti-404 in Russian) which serves as an online meeting place for teens who might not have anywhere else to go. It was created by journalist Elena Kilmova; after she wrote an article about LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender) youth, she received email from a teen who had been suicidal until she read the article.

The name is inspired by “Error 404, page not found” a message that often comes up on the Internet. Klimova chose it because Russian society is seemingly telling gay teens that they don’t even exist. It gives then a chance to say “We are here!”

More than 22,000 joined the group; 1,364 shared their stories.The film features excerpts from the messages posted on the site. Many are heart-rending, filled with sadness and despair. One mocks the idea that anyone would possibly “choose” to be gay. “Hey kids, be gays! Everyone hates us, humiliates us, beats us up – this is so cool!”

Few teens dare to tell their parents about their orientation, for fear of being thrown out of the house. The father who accepts his daughter and is proud that she is different is a rare exception.

A Guardian article about Error 404 quotes a “16-year-old from a small town ‘which isn’t even on the map’.” He says “Our school is considered progressive, but it is quite normal for teachers to say that homosexuals will burn in hell.”

Another Guardian article from 2013 says that “an MP in the Siberian region of Zabaikalsk called for a law allowing gays to be publicly flogged by Cossacks.”

Elena Klimova was 25 when the film was made. She doesn’t look much older than a teenager herself, which is remarkable considering the stress she must have been under for years. She reveals that she and her partner lost their jobs because of their orientation. They were both told to resign. Almost all the same-sex couples she knows want to leave Russia, but she does not want to go. She looks forward to a future when the present-day situation will be described as the “stone age,” and she hopes that it won’t take decades to arrive.

Klimova has been taken to court twice over the web site, in the most recent case, she was fined 50,000 rubles, approximately $740 U.S. An online notice from Amnesty International, dated March 18, 2015, says the the “Prosecutor’s Office in one of St Petersburg’s districts had submitted a request to have the Children 404 group. . .closed down.” Readers are urged to support Klimova by writing to Russian officials in protest.

Elena Klimova, founder of the Russian web site Children 404, which gives gay teens a place to express themselves and seek advice and support.

Forty-five members of Error 404 participated in the filmmaking, with some sharing footage shot on their cellphones. But an articulate young man named Pasha receives the most screen time. When he visits his former school, the presence of a cameraman doesn’t stop students from yelling insults and throwing things at him. What do they do when they aren’t being recorded?

Pasha says that one of his teachers had said that gay people “should be burned and banished,” and that the school social worker and psychologist told him he was the one with a problem, because he couldn’t accept homophobes. “If you find love for them, they will find love for you,” they said. As if.

Rather than follow their surreal advice, Pasha’s solution is to move to Canada, home of his idol, Justin Bieber(!) He says “I am convinced that after seven years I will have a family, small kids and a house.” He also says that he plans to study journalism and possibly enter politics. He’s obviously a strong, smart and very determined guy, though I wonder if he has checked the price of Toronto real estate lately, or the sorry employment prospects for journalists in North America. All the same, I wish him the very best in his life here.

I have a suggestion, too. There’s a scene at a memorial to Lenin where Pasha sings a slightly fractured version of O, Canada. It sounds like he’s singing “We stand on guard for free.” Once he learns all the words, why not invite him to sing the anthem at some public event?

Pasha Romanov visits a friend before leaving Russia for Canada, in a scene from the Russian documentary Children 404. (Romanov now calls himself Justin, in honour of Justin Bieber.)

The web site Queer Russia says that vigilantes and policemen with machine guns tried to disrupt the premiere of Children 404 in Moscow last year. Police “checked the IDs of the audience, looking for minors and writing down passport data of some people.”

I’ve been asked to include this information: “Cinema Politica is presenting the Quebec premiere screening of CHILDREN 404 on Monday, March 23, 2015. Directors Askold Kurov and Pavel Loparev will be in attendance all the way from Russia for a Q&A after the screening! The event is co-presented with Radical Queer Semaine, Concordia Documentary Centre, Simone de Beauvoir Institute, and Queer Concordia.
More information can be found about Children 404 here:

While I wasn’t asked to share this info, I am happy to tell you that Cinema Politica was instrumental in getting the film made. The CP web site says “Cinema Politica co-founders Svetla Turnin and Ezra Winton, along with CP Board Member and Concordia University Research Chair in Sexual Representation and in Documentary Thomas Waugh and his colleague Ryan Conrad, launched an Indiegogo campaign to raise essential funds for this project. We eventually surpassed our goal and were able to raise $11,575 U.S. towards the making of CHILDREN 404!” The film’s credits says that all the money usedto make it came from crowdfunding. You might notice that some names appear several times, too.
CHILDREN 404
Directed by Askold Kurov and Pavel Loparev / Russia / 2014 / 70 ‘ / Russian / English subtitles
Monday, March 23, 2015, 7 p.m.
Concordia University, 1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd., W., Room H-110
Montreal, Quebec
Canada

Directors Askold Kurov and Pavel Loparev will be there. (I predict that the first question they’re asked will be “What can we do to help?”)
Suggested admission is $5 to $10.

Lost and Love movie review: Hong Kong superstar Andy Lau plays a heartbroken father determined to find his lost son

Lei Zekuan (Andy Lau) passes out fliers with photos of his missing son in a scene from the Chinese film Lost and Love. (China Lion Film Distribution)

Even though I’m a longtime fan of Hong Kong movie star Andy Lau, I didn’t know that he has made more than 140 films. Busy, busy man!

The versatile actor with the killer cheekbones is equally at home as a handsome, well-dressed guy in frothy rom-coms, as a gangster or cop in crime stories, or as a swashbucking hero in period costume epics.

In Lost and Love (Shi Gu), Lau’s character, Lei Zekuan, is not glamourous, but he is heroic all the same, in his own quiet way.

For 15 years, farmer Lei his been searching for his son, Lei Da, who was abducted while Lei and his wife were working in their orchard. The boy was under his grandmother’s care; someone ran off with him when her back was turned for a moment.

While Lau’s character is sad and subdued, but he’s stubborn, too, determined to carry on and never give up. And he’s not so absorbed in his own quest that he can’t sympathize with others who are in the same boat.

Despite all the paranoia about “stranger danger,” children in North America are more likely to be abducted by a divorced or separated parent who disagrees with a child custody ruling. In China, however, many children are abducted by strangers and sold to carry on the family name, work in the family business, and, eventually, support their new “parents” when old age comes. China’s one child policy and its preference for boys makes child trafficking a lucrative business. In fact, the film’s press notes say that human trafficking (of women and children) is a $30 billion business in China.

And, according to an article on the web site Women of China, before a recent change in legislation, people who bought women or children were only “sentenced to a maximum of three years imprisonment, or detained or put under control for a short time. Most of the buyers only receive a verbal warning, if they did not abuse the women and children before the authorities found them.”

Lost and Love opens with a photo of a beautiful baby, then we see a distraught young woman in a busy intersection – “My child is missing, have you seen her?” she asks, while brandishing photos of her daughter; some do speak with her briefly (“Where did you lose her?” “You should try the Internet,”) while others just hurry by on their way to wherever.

Then the scene switches to Lau, as a weary-looking Lei; he’s one of many men standing on the open deck of a moving ferry. His face is dark from the sun and there are grey hairs in his beard and mustache. No fancy clothes here. He still has his famous sharp cheekbones, though. Lei slumps over his motorcycle, awkwardly trying to nap while his fellow passengers examine the large fabric banner attached to the bike, which shows a photo of his son as a baby, along with details of his disappearance.

One man tells Lei his quest is useless, and he should give up, another man that there’s no way a father could stop looking for his child. Nearby passengers get caught up in the argument and almost come to blows; Lei just waits for the ferry to dock so he can continue his search.

Zeng Shuai (Jing Boran) repairs Lei Zekuan's damaged motorcycle in a scene from the Chinese film Lost and Love. (China Lion Film Distribution) — Zeng Shuai (Jing Boran) repairs Lei Zekuan’s damaged motorcycle in a scene from the Chinese film Lost and Love. (China Lion Film Distribution)

In an accident that is suggested rather than shown, Lei and his motorcycle sustain some damage. The bike is repaired by young Zeng Shuai (Jing Boran) who reveals that he was abducted himself. Of course, this is very convenient for the plot, but considering how widespread the problem is, it doesn’t seem like such a farfetched development.

Zeng yearns to see his parents again and wonders if they are looking for him, too. He’s distressed, because even in his dreams he can’t see his mother’s face; he can only remember her long braid, a bridge and a bamboo grove. He has practical concerns, too, as a stolen child, without an all-important ID card, he couldn’t continue his education, he can’t marry, he can’t even take a train.

Lei and Zeng hit the road together. China’s major cities might be drowning in air pollution, but there is still some astounding greenery to be seen in the countryside. While they travel, something like a father-son bond develops between them; it’s charming to watch, but they also bicker a lot, which tried my patience. That’s my only complaint about this film, really.

China is huge and so is its population. Trying to find one person seems like an impossible task, but that’s where the power of social media comes in. Lei and Zeng make frequent visits to Internet cafes where they exchange information with people all over China. A woman tells Lei about a teen who might be his son. Hundreds of photos of bridges are sent to Zeng. (The film’s credits mention a real-life organization called Baby Come Home, which has more than 100,000 volunteers across China. Read an English language story about it here, visit the Baby Come Home web site here.)

Tony Leung Ka-Fai, left has a cameo role as a policeman. — Tony Leung Ka-Fai, left, in a cameo role as a policeman, gives Andy Lau directions in the Chinese film Lost and Love. (China Lion Film Distribution)

Tony Leung Ka-Fai and Sandra Ng make cameo appearances in Lost and Love as a police officer and a baby trafficker, respectively.

Lost and Love is written and directed by Peng Sanyuan. She’s a novelist who has also written TV shows, this is the first time she has directed a film.

Lost and Love is in Mandarin with English and Chinese subtitles. It opens on Friday, March 20, 2015. In Montreal it will be shown at:
Cineplex Odeon Forum Cinemas, 2313 Ste. Catherine St. W. Montreal, QC H3H 1N2

Lost and Love will be shown in the Canadian cities of Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver. In the U.S. it will be shown in New York State, Washington State, California, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts and Michigan. More information about Canadian and U.S. screenings is available here.
Information about Lost and Love screenings in Australia and New Zealand here.

Cinema Politica Mondays: Righteous pranksters The Yes Men are coming to Montreal! Meet them and see their latest film!

If you’re already familiar with The Yes Men, the following information might be all you need from me: 7 p.m., Monday, March 16, 2015, Room H-110, Concordia University.

For the rest of you. . . The Yes Men are bringing the latest documentary about themselves, The Yes Men Are Revolting, to Montreal. This is the third film about them, so they must be pretty interesting, right? Right! And the film was invited to the Toronto Film Festival in 2014 and the Berlin Film Festival this year.

The Yes Men are multi-talented multi-taskers. They are authors, activists, co-conspirators, inspired impersonators, performance artists, political pranksters, practical jokers, rabble rousers, social-justice warriors. Or, to put it more briefly, they’re “the good guys.” (Well, I think so, and I know that many others do, too.)

The Yes Men are Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonnano, though they are aided and abetted by hundreds of like minded souls. They use humour, chutzpah and their considerable wits to expose injustice. They hope that their antics will shame corporations or politicians into doing the right thing.

The Yes Men are canny users of the media. They often get their message out through phony web sites, phony press releases, or at press conferences where they impersonate someone in a position of authority.

Their most audacious prank was on BBC TV in 2004. On the 20th anniversary of a deadly chemical leak in Bhopal, India, Bichlbaum impersonated a “Dow Chemical spokesman” who said that the company would take full responsibility for the disaster and spend $12 billion on clean up and compensation. (Dow Chemical had bought Union Carbide in 2001, but refused to accept any responsibility for the victims or for cleaning up the site, which was still contaminated, 20 years after the leak.)

At least 8,000 people died within 72 hours of the gas leak at a Union Carbide plant, 15,000 more died in the following years, and 100,000 had debilitating illnesses “for which treatment is largely ineffective.”

The hoax got lots of international attention, though sadly it did not prompt Dow Chemical to change its stance.

The Yes Men have impersonated representatives of the World Trade Organization, Halliburton,
U.S. Chamber of Commerce and U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development. They even have “Canadian content.” During a Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen they created several fake web sites that said Environment Canada was committed to making huge reductions in greenhouse gases, and that Canada would pay $13 billion in compensation to African countries that were adversely affected by climate change. They spoofed an oil and gas conference in Calgary, and they put Justin Bieber’s face on an asthma inhaler. (That was on a web site created to mock greenwashing by coal companies. You can read the post I wrote about it here.)
When reviewing the previous films, The Yes Men (2003) and The Yes Men Fix the World (2009) some critics wrote that they would have liked to know more about what makes the Yes Men tick, what prompts their activism. While I’ve not seen The Yes Men Are Revolting, reviews I’ve read indicate that we do learn more about the day-to-day lives of the duo and how their political work has an impact on their family relationships.

There is no fixed price for admission to the screening of The Yes Men Are Revolting, it’s a pay what you can situation, though the suggested price is $5 to $10.
I suggest bringing some extra cash, in case there is some The Yes Men merchandise for sale. Their online store has T-shirts, DVDs, posters, books, spoof editions of New York Times, New York Post AND “one Survivaball: Couture for Climate Calamity. Extremely Limited Edition – $10,000.00” I suspect that the last item is a joke. The thing does exist, but are they really selling it? Maybe we will find out on Monday night.

The Yes Men Are Revolting, directed by Laura Nix & The Yes Men / United States / 2014 / 90 ‘ / in English

Screening, with The Yes Men in attendance, at 7 p.m., Monday, March 16, 2015, 1455 de Maisonneuve West, Room H110, Concordia University, Montreal

The Facebook Event page is here.

Learn more about The Yes Men here.

Learn more about Cinema Politica here.