Director's Statement

Just prior to the Russian invasion, US Ambassador Bathsheba Nell Crocker went to the UN and other International Organizations in Geneva: The U.S. had warned the United Nations that it believes Russia has plans to kill large numbers of critics, dissidents and “vulnerable populations” in Ukraine or send them to camps after an expected invasion …..such as religious and ethnic minorities and LGBTQIA+ persons.” 

 

This is reminiscent of World War II and the Nazi concentration camps that held and exterminated political dissidents, Jews, Roma and members of the  LGBTQIA+ community. Thousands of LGBTQIA+ persons were rounded up and killed. I am a gay American Journalist and filmmaker. Our Colors Never Fade is a documentary on the LGBTQIA+ members of the Ukrainian military and civilians fighting in the war against the Russian aggressors.

 

“This is the first time in my lifetime I have seen the LGBTQIA+ community fighting not only for their country’s freedom but for their very existence as a community”. Our Colors Never Fade tells the personal stories of their life before the war, and now during the fighting, I hope to show their heroism as Defenders, as well as their lives as ordinary citizens. I am just the messenger. When people see and hear about others fighting for their country’s freedom, they view them as Patriots.

 

Will that be true for the LGBTQIA+ Defenders? Will their fellow Ukrainian citizens accept them for who they are? The objective is to show who the LGBTQIA+ community really is in the context of the war. And, to help break down the prejudices people have through “real life” education about the community, and not fear based hatred. The target audience for the film is inside Ukraine as well as the international community Worldwide.