Help Us Bring "Pogrom" to the Global Stage — A Fundraising Appeal from Filmmakers Christopher Folkens & Joseph Pellegrino.
Our movie, Pogrom, is a powerfully urgent short film inspired by the true, ongoing atrocities of the gay purge in Chechnya, a brutal campaign of abduction, torture and murder that has been targeting LGBTQ+ people since 2017. Yet, this violent campaign has been largely hidden from global view. Our film aims to break that silence.
As filmmakers, we believe storytelling can be a weapon against injustice. Pogrom will dramatize real survivor accounts to raise awareness, provoke empathy, and rally international attention towards a severe but overlooked chapter of recent queer history, events which are sadly still occurring today. But we can’t do this alone. We’re seeking partners who believe in the power of film to expose truth and inspire change. Your donations definitely supported us in filming Pogrom at the highest levels. That said, we are now at a point where ensuring it reaches not only audiences but policymakers, activists and the global press through a robust and active festival run and Academy Awards campaign in 2026 leading to the 2027 Oscars is well within reach.
We assembling top-notch cast and crew to help bring this vital story to life, all of whom worked at reduced salaries because of our passion and dedication to the message our film serves to share. We even just signed Oscar Winning producer Andrew Carlberg to the film as an executive producer to ensuring our festival run is extremely effective!
We now know the film is truly stunning. But while the film is complete, it is not enough to have an amazing film, we need to be ready to "play the long game" and that will require between $45-50K for the campaign.
This is why we need your help. Stand with us. Fund the truth. Help give a voice to those who can’t speak for themselves.
Please take a few minutes and watch our "behind the scenes" to see a glimpse of the teaser trailer and hear from the team we have that made the film!
