Announcement

The organisation Q² invites everyone to participate in a screening of the recent documentary “Hunting the rainbow”. The event will take place on January 24, 2026, in Amsterdam, at the Goethe-Institut (Herengracht 470). Doors open at 13:00, and the screening will begin at 13:30. After the screening, there will be a Q&A and discussion session with the documentary’s director, Nikita Loyk, who will travel to Amsterdam specifically for this event.
Programme:
13:00 – Opening and registration
13:30–15:00 – Documentary screening
15:20–16:30 – Q&A and panel discussion with Nikita Loyk and Stas Volkman.
16:30-18:00 – Post-screening mixer (playing games, socializing).

Hunting the Rainbow portrays the lives of queer people whose destinies have been reshaped by homophobic laws, social isolation, and violence. Particular attention is given to the work of human rights defenders who help evacuate LGBTQ+ people or hide them from persecution. It is an honest and profound look at a reality in which fear becomes part of everyday life, and the struggle for the right to be oneself becomes a matter of life and death.

Director Nikita Loyk continues to create documentary projects focused on LGBTQ+ themes. His previous works—Beyond the Rainbow, Uncurable Me, and Transition Prohibited (Переход запрещен)—explored the lives of queer refugees and the devastating consequences of conversion therapy. The new film delves into an even more critical subject: how Russian-speaking LGBTQ+ people survive and fight for their rights under conditions of total pressure.

Nikita Loyk is a Russian director, screenwriter, and documentarian living and working in Lisbon. In 2022, he emigrated following the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, protesting the war and the political situation. Trained as a philologist, Nikita has many years of experience in journalism, which has shaped his distinctive authorial style. His personal experience of conversion therapy during adolescence informed his strong advocacy for LGBTQ+ rights.

Since 2017, Nikita Loyk has been the creator and co-author of the YouTube channel “And Talk?" (“А поговорить?"), dedicated to social and political documentary films and interviews. After the channel’s co-author, Irina Shikhman, was designated a “foreign agent” in Russia, Nikita and Irina continued their work abroad.

Producer Stas Vokman is a Russian LGBT activist, photographer, and producer. After facing persecution by the authorities, he relocated to the Netherlands, where he was granted refugee status. Stas worked as a team leader in a Russian-speaking LGBT organization, supporting queer refugees, and in his artistic projects he explores issues of identity, integration, and social challenges. In 2024, he became the producer of the documentary film Transition Prohibited, which addresses the experiences of Russian-speaking LGBTQ+ refugees and tragic cases of suicide within the community.

Through the film Hunting the Rainbow, Nikita Loyk and Stas Vokman seek to draw attention to the problems of discrimination, create space for dialogue, and present an authentic portrayal of the lives of the Russian-speaking LGBTQ+ community.

This event is financed by the Trust Fund (https://www.trutfonds.nl/)

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You can register for this event by clicking the link below.

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