IX Side by Side LGBT Film Festival, Saint Petersburg, 2016 IX Side by Side LGBT Film Festival, 2016 | Page 5

MANNY DE
GUERRE
BENYA
GULYA
SULTANOVA
NATASHA
KIM
The Side by Side Film Festival will be held
for the ninth time this year in St. Petersburg.
Since our founding in 2008, we have gone
through a lot, but we have always negotiated
the difficulties and responded to the challenges.
Our work has transformed Side by Side
into one of the leading cultural and public
events in town, a place where important,
informative and interesting things happen.
Our audience has grown by leaps and bounds,
our circle of partners and sponsors has
expanded and our team has become larger
and more diverse.
This year the festival focuses on the individual
in history. This is no accident. In one way
or another, all of us are making history every day.
The history we are living now and the history
awaiting us in the future depends solely on us
as individuals. This year, we have put together
a program of films about people who changed
the course of history. Through their actions
and attitudes and, sometimes, at the cost
of their own lives, they made change possible.
They include transgender pioneers, people
who overcame the contempt and stigma
towards their HIV- positive status, innovative
artists who blazed new trails in art, and people
with health problems who were willing to break
MARINA
MIRT
JULIA
SOLNTSEVA
down external barriers and the barriers
in people’s minds.
Guests from seven countries and three
continents will be joining us at Side by Side
this year. They include the renowned American
Olympic diving champion Greg Louganis, Indian
actresses Anushka Manchanda and Pavleen
Gujral, French filmmakers Olivier Ducastel
and Jacques Martineau, Italian actress Ondina
Quadri, Israeli filmmaker Barak Heymann
and the star of his film, Saar Maoz, Croatian
filmmaker Hrvoje Mabić and American queer
and trans researcher Cáel M. Keegan.
The Side by Side Film Festival is not just
about movies and encounters with amazing
people. It is also about a dialogue with
others in an atmosphere of acceptance
and respect, making new friends and truly
celebrating diversity.