Anna, Olga, Frida & Luna

A story about family, love, diversity and immigration for GBS.

Great Big Story was a media company producing micro-documentaries launched in October 2015 by CNN. Their YouTube channel had almost 6 million subscribers in September 2020, when CNN suddenly decided to end GBS in the midst of the global pandemic.

Only a couple weeks before the decision that saddened millions of followers and fans was announced, I I was commissioned to shoot an interview and b-roll with a unique family in Argentina. The footage captured by me would later be combined with other 6 family portraits around the world to create GBS piece on ‘Family’. This is a peek into that heart warming shot that never made it to its final version.

Intimate Conversation

Anna and Olga received me and Elena Hasapov – who would be the interpreter – into their home. They don’t speak English and their Spanish, although fluent enough to get them through their everyday lives, was not enough to talk as deeply and intimately as the topic required. Furthermore, Anna has a big russian following on social media, and she wanted the footage to be in her audience’s language, to inspire others that come from where they do. Because of the pandemic context and the size of their apartment, I did not bring a sound person and took care of the entire shot on my own, counting on Elena’s assistance for communication.

“When I think about our daughters being part of an LGBTQ+ family, it brings me peace of mind that they are living here and there are many families around us whose kids grow up in families like ours, and that there is support from the government and a general understanding from society as a whole of who and what we are.”

-Olga

A journey to Family

During our conversation, they explained that their journey from Russia into Argentina was indeed part of their journey into becoming mothers. Same-sex marriage in Argentina has been legal since July 22, 2010. Argentina was the first country in Latin America, the second in the Americas, the second in the Southern Hemisphere and the 10th in the world to legalise same-sex marriage.

Social Media

“We wanted to share our experience because we believe that it can be healthy and important to many other families and other LGBTQ+ families to listen to such an experience.”

All these images are frame captures of the raw footage I produced but never got edited into the final GBS piece about ‘Family’.

Sep 16th 2020, Because of the pandemic context and the size of their apartment, I did not bring a sound person and took care of the entire shot on my own. This is how I carried the gear.

“Being part of our family is actually not hard at all, because I am where I belong. And being were you belong, isn’t difficult at all.”

– Anna