Watch this award-winning documentary on Kosovo’s LGBTQ community

When Kosovo’s first pride parade exploded into the heart of Pristina in 2017, it marked one step in a long and difficult struggle by the country’s LGBTQ community.

Created by Kosovar news site K2.0, The Sky Is Turning follows the activists behind the landmark celebration.

Filming took place over four months, allowing director Matko Bulent, journalist Venera Cocaj and editor More Raca to piece together the real stories of LGBTQ people living in the country today.

The four-part series was awarded the Human Rights Journalism Prize by the Baltic Investigative Reporting Network Kosovo (BIRN) and the Advocacy Centre for Democratic Culture in a ceremony earlier this month. Activists, meanwhile, also took home another victory: holding a second pride festival on 10 October 2018.

“Kosovo’s first Pride parade in October 2017 marked an important day in the struggle for human rights in Kosovo. K2.0 has long vocally supported LGBTQ rights and this has given us direct experience of the homophobic views that still prevail in our society,” said Besa Luci, K2.0’s editor-in-chief.

“Today, outspoken and vocal public support for LGBTQ persons is much more present. Though the mainstream media generally still lack a comprehensive understanding of the struggles of LGBTQ people, they have also moved away from outright hate speech. LGBTQ-related issues have become part of the mainstream public discourse in recent years. However, the struggle for equality is continuous and never-ending. And the fight for LGBTQ rights in Kosovo still has a long way to go.”

All four episodes of The Sky Is Turning are avaliable to watch here.