Moskva. Pride '06 (2006)

This is the official documentary record of the first Christopher Street Day celebration in Moscow, known as "Moscow Pride". The events that took place from May 25th to May 27th 2006 included a gay pride, which garnered international attention not least because Moscow's mayor Yuri Luzhkov refused authorization. Moscow Pride '06 also focuses on the troubles around the Kremlin and Moscow City Hall when participants gathered to protest the ban of the Pride march as well as the Tverskoi District Court decision to uphold Mayor Yuri Luzhkov's decision to ban the march. This film shows not only the procession that, followed by international guests and observers, made its way through the center of Moscow from the Unknown Soldier's Memorial on 27 May, 2006, it also contains footage of a three-day festival that drew attention to the discrimination experienced by gays and lesbians in Russia. Some focuses of the documentary include the Nordic festival, the Russian gay cultural contest, Merlin Holland's lecture on his grandfather Oscar Wilde and the International Day Against Homophobia (IDAHO) first World Conference. Some of which could only take place in great secrecy. The pressures to which gays and lesbians are exposed in Russia was unexpectedly made clear during the CSD demonstration when German MP Volker Beck (from the Bündnis90/Green Party) was assaulted and injured by right-wing extremist counter-demonstrators in front of Moscow's town hall. Millions of television viewers all over the world witnessed these attacks. Footage of the assault is now being used as evidence in proceedings against the Russian Federation currently being held before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.