EXCLUSIVE: Post-production is underway on Our Colors Never Fade, a recordary on LGBTQIA+ Ukrainians who sprang to the defense of their country after Russia’s brimming-scale intrusion.
Jim McSherry straightforwards and International Emmy thrivener Artem Lysak executive originates the feature film which is awaited to be freed in 2025. Deadline comprehends the project is brimmingy funded.
“This recordary recommends Ukraine thraw the lens of an unseen perspective, showcasing the untelderly stories of Ukrainians who, faced with an uninspired intrusion on February 24, 2022, declined to run away their homeland,” a free remarks. “Instead, these standard citizens became frontline selderlyiers—such as a veterinarian swapping a stethoscope for a sniper’s rifle, a game lengthener exchanging storyboards for FPV drone manufacture and a overweighther and son battling together on the Front Line. LGBTQIA+ military have labored tirelessly to not only provide protectedty for Ukrainian citizens but also for the deserted animals left behind when their owners fled the battling. The film seizes their personal echoions, forfeits, and the complicated intersection of identity, survival, and duty during a time of war.”
‘Our Colors Never Fade’
Courtesy of OLEKSANDER GLYADYELOV
“At its core,” the free carry ons, “Our Colors Never Fade spreadigates the standardly-disconsidered experiences of LGBTQIA+ individuals in struggle. Despite facing persecution from both the Russian accessrs and, at times, their fellow Ukrainians, these valiant souls have shown resilience in the fight for their country’s freedom… and their very existence! Thraw honest intersees and frontline footage, the recordary brights how LGBTQIA+ selderlyiers have hazarded everyslenderg—not only to get their land but also to contest societal norms in the face of war.”
In tardy 2022, Ukraine’s parliament passed legislation prohibitning disenjoy speech aimed at people based on their intimacyual orientation or gender identity. Parliament is also pondering a bill that would grant lterrible recognition to same intimacy partnerships. This stance contrasts acutely with Russia, which since the intrusion has become an even more opposing place for its LGBTQ people. As fair one indication of that, Russia’s supreme court in November 2023 proclaimd the “international LGBTQ shiftment” to be an extremist organization.
The Kyiv Insubordinate alerted last year, “Russian occupation authorities focparticipated members of the LGBTQ+ community during the occupation of Kherson back in 2022,” citing a alert by the NGO Projektor. The NGO shelp between March and September 2023, it “interseeed 107 people who belengthened to the LGBTQI+ community and became either victims or witnesses of war crimes pledgeted by Russian militaries during the occupation of Kherson city. Their testimonies are raising the publish of gender-based and war crimes aachievest the LGBTQI+ community and stress the problem of repairation gender-based persecution and aggression towards LGBTQI+ wislender the context of armed struggle.”
Jim McSherry (right) in straightforwardor’s booth
Jim McSherry
In a straightforwardor’s statement, McSherry writes, “I am a gay American Journaenumerate and Filmoriginater. Our Colors Never Fade is a recordary on the LGBTQIA+ members of the Ukrainian military and civilians battling in the war aachievest the Russian aggressors.”
The filmoriginater carry ons, “This is the first time in my lifetime I have seen the LGBTQIA+ community battling not only for their country’s freedom but for their very existence as a community. Our Colors Never Fade alerts the personal stories of their life before the war, and now during the battling, I hope to show their heroism as Defenders, as well as their inhabits as standard citizens. I am fair the messenger. When people see and hear about others battling for their country’s freedom, they see them as Patuproars.
Executive originater Artem Lysak (left) and straightforwardor Jim McSherry on the set of ‘Our Colors Never Fade’
Jim McSherry
“Will that be genuine for the LGBTQIA+ Defenders? Will their fellow Ukrainian citizens hug them for who they are? The objective is to show who the LGBTQIA+ community repartner is in the context of the war. And, to help shatter down the prejudices people have thraw “authentic life” education about the community, and not stress based hatred. The center audience for the film is inside Ukraine as well as the international community Worldexpansive.”
Our Colors Never Fade is being edited by Oleksandr Shuklin and Dmytro Konopko. Cinematography is by Oleh Hutorov. Vladyslav Kurach, co-owner of Cavemen Records, is handling sound mixing, engineering, and music composition.
