Romas Zabarauskas (born 31 May 1990) is a Lithuanian

film director A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, p ...

, screenwriter, author and producer. He established film company Naratyvas in 2012. Zabarauskas, a member of the European Film Academy, completed film studies at the Paris 8 Vincennes Saint-Denis University with an exchange year at CUNY/Hunter. He had previously attended the Jonas Basanavičius school in Vilnius. Zabarauskas made his debut with a short film ''

Porno melodrama Porno may refer to: * Pornography, explicit depiction of sexual subject matter with principal intention of sexually exciting a viewer **Pornographic magazine **Pornographic film * ''Porno'' (film), a 2019 American film * ''Porno'' (novel), a 2 ...

'' in 2011 which was shown at the international film festival

Berlinale The Berlin International Film Festival (german: Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin), usually called the Berlinale (), is a major international film festival held annually in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festi ...

. Openly

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

, Romas takes part in social actions against

homophobia Homophobia encompasses a range of negative attitude (psychology), attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who are identified or perceived as being lesbian, gay or bisexual. It has been defined as contempt, prejudice, aversion, h ...

. He developed the LGBT Friendly Vilnius initiative," a map of LGBTQ friendly cafes in Vilnius, which aims to promote openness to all sexualities, races, disabilities, and nationalities within the city.

Filmography

* ''

'' (short) (2011) * ''

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'' (2013) * ''

You Can't Escape Lithuania In Modern English, ''you'' is the second-person pronoun. It is grammatically plural, and was historically used only for the dative case, but in most modern dialects is used for all cases and numbers. History ''You'' comes from the Proto- ...

'' (2016) * '' Advokatas (The Lawyer)'' (2020)

Other works

* Zabarauskas authored Lithuania Comes Out: 99 LGBT+ Stories, a collection of ninety-nine stories from LGBTQ Lithuanians

Awards

* Best Film runner-up at The Bushwick Film Festival for ''You Can't Escape Lithuania'' * LGBTQ Champion Award, Harvey Milk Foundation, 2021

Activism

Zabarauskas openly campaigns for LGBTQ+ rights. He published an open letter to the Lithuanian president regarding the country's partnership law. He, among other Lithuanians, gathered at the Seimas to campaign for the Partnership Law to be passed, at which he was a speaker. He also champions other causes, such as supporting refugees within Lithuania, namely in partnership with donation platform Aukok.It, in collaboration with the Lithuanian Red Cross, and as a member of the Become an Ambassador project.

References

External links

* Living people Lithuanian film directors Lithuanian LGBT writers Lithuanian LGBT rights activists Lithuanian gay men LGBT film directors 1990 births Hunter College alumni 21st-century Lithuanian LGBT people {{Lithuania-film-director-stub