Documentary Project
Ireland has earned a global reputation for progressive change—decriminalising homosexuality, passing the Marriage Equality Referendum, introducing the Gender Recognition Act, and providing free HIV care through its public healthcare system. Against this backdrop, a new generation of LGBTQIA+ immigrants is reshaping what it means to live, love, and heal in Ireland.
Out of Shadows is an experimental short documentary that traces the emotional and transformative journeys of queer immigrants living with HIV. It reflects on migration as both rupture and rebirth—on the nostalgia for languages, lands, and lives left behind, and the slow process of rediscovering the self within a new culture, under the same sky. These are stories of courage and quiet resistance, shaped by the pursuit of safety, dignity, and belonging in a country still learning to fully embrace its diversity.
Through evocative imagery, personal testimony, and performative intervention, the film confronts queer experiences of migration, intimacy, sexuality, health, bodily exposure, and visibility. It foregrounds grassroots organising, peer-led support, and artistic expression as vital counter-spaces of care, resistance, and empowerment within systems that often fail queer migrants.
At its core, Out of Shadows is a tribute to the queer migrant spirit—resilient, tender, and ever-evolving. It centres voices too often pushed to the margins: asylum seekers, economic migrants, people living with HIV, and queer people of colour. These are queer stories in motion—shaped by memory and movement, and actively reshaping the future.
In memory of the late LGBTQ+ activist Andrew Lumsden.
The project was supported with funding from the Grand Camp Maisie Fund
Out of Shadows
Beyond Stigma: Queer Immigrant Lives with HIV in Ireland
Credits
Featuring – Luis Noguera Benitez, Jordi Moya Roset & Prateek Bhardwaj
Writer, Director and Exec. Producer – Pradeep Mahadeshwar
Production Company – Cassette Vision
Producers – John Breen & Adam Rael
Director of Photography – Daniel Bolaños Meade
Editor – Luke Faulkner
Make-Up – Aisling Doyle & Grace McClair
Original Score by Derek Byrne and Ciaran McGannon
Sound Recordists – Derek Byrne & Maria Alexandra Klement
Post Sound – Derek Byrne
Creative Writing Support – Lee Isac
1st ACs – JP Quill & Rowan Sherrard
On-Set Photographer – Peter Kennelly
Sound Recordists – Derek Byrne & Maria Alexandra Klement
Trainee – Peter Kennelly
Associate Producer – Jack Quinn
Special thanks to IADT and Sandra Newell
Luis’s red costume from Veda Lady’s wardrobe
Special Thank you to POZ Vibe Tribe, Enda Mc Grattan/Veda Lady, Robbie Lawlor & all Tribe members.