It’s one thing to stage a film on a set. It’s another to actually live it.

Paul Rice did just that. The Irish-born director, who, at 30, now lives in San Francisco, felt a moral calling to after hearing stories of the suppression of queer people in Russia. Rice grabbed his camera, his boyfriend Liam, and set off to document the lives of LGBTQ Russians. His three-week trip consisted of stops in some of Russia’s largest cities via the Trans-Siberian railroad. The resulting film, A Worm in the Heart, depicts a minority reviled and scapegoated by a corrupt political system in the name of protecting the public from homosexual propaganda. Had Rice, his boyfriend, or any of their interview subjects been caught, they could have ended up in prison, or worse.

Queerty caught up with Rice just ahead of the world premiere of A Worm in the Heart at the Santa Barbara Film Festival January 17. It will play the festival circuit throughout this year.

So, this fundamentally is a journey story, both for you, and for the activists you encountered. At exactly what point did you, an Irishman living in the US, decide you needed to make a film about Russia?

PR: I think, it’s a strange thing. At the age I’m at, I grew up in Ireland at a time of change for the LGBTQ community in the western world. Being gay was criminalized in much of the western world. I think that’s very indicative of where society was with the LGBTQ community. So as I grew up with my own relationship to my sexuality, a lot of the world did as well. Read more via Queerty