Before the full-scale invasion, subversive collective Rebel Queers would defy the heteronormative and patriarchal world that so suffocated them by scrawling on the walls of Kyiv: ‘Queer Sex,’ ‘Make Queer Punk Again,’ and ‘Be Queer, Do Crime, Hail Satan,’ among others. The driving force behind Rebel Queers is Angelika Ustymenko, a non-binary and neurodivergent artist and filmmaker.

When their country and their community came under attack, they resolved to document the experiences of queer Ukrainians during wartime. On the first anniversary of the full-scale invasion, Angelika began a new phase of their documentary project, collaborating with Alex King and Huck Docs to collect queer soldiers’ reflections after a year of war and broadening the focus to include other forms of queer resistance.

Angelika Ustymenko is a non-binary queer artist and activist based in Kyiv, Ukraine. They are a part of Rebel Queers whose actions are aimed to honour queer people and realise their liberation. In 2018, Angelika made their first short film that was shot on 16mm and premiered at Kyiv International Film Festival Molodist. After the full-scale invasion, they evacuated to Berlin and organised an exhibition featuring Ukrainian queer artists. After coming back to Kyiv the spring of 2022, they made a documentary about Ukrainian queer people during the war, UKRAINIAN QUEER FIGHTERS FOR FREEDOM. In 2023, Angelika released a new documentary, REBEL QUEERS: UKRAINE'S QUEER RESISTANCE, focusing on queer people in the Ukrainian army, as well as a fiction short film BEFORE CURFEW. Both films were premiered at Sunny Bunny LGBTQIA+ Film Festival.