top of page

Listen to your Heart

Austria

Europe

Central European University

Project Overview

My Millennium Fellowship Project was to create and share a documentary about the state of LGBTQ+ rights in Hungary. In filming the documentary, I spent a substantial amount of time in Budapest, the capital of Hungary, researching and interviewing my relevant subjects. The people who have contributed to my film include community members, scholars, community organizers, and NGO founders.

Project Impact

I would consider my Fellowship project to have succeeded in accomplishing the goals I've set in my application process. My documentary fulfilled its dual aims of raising awareness and fostering solidarity within and beyond the LGBTQ+ community. At its core, the project highlighted the intersectional challenges faced by queer individuals in Hungary, examining the ways in which political, social, and academic forces contribute to the systemic marginalization of this group. By doing so, it provided a unique platform for amplifying underrepresented voices, particularly those of community leaders, academics, and activists. My greatest and most important goal was to create this platform, to form a safe space for difficult conversations and critical reflections on how the community's lives are impacted by the current sociopolitical climate. While the process itself was difficult mainly for technical reasons, the outcomes in the personal sense have been beyond what I could've expected. Just as much as I've shaped this project, it has certainly shaped me.

Millennium Fellows Involved

Johanna Önnemaria Öövel

bottom of page