'Hunted' Director Ben Steele: Violence Against Gays In Russia Is 'Regular Sunday Pastime'

Ben Steele, the director of the upcoming documentary film Hunted: The War Against Gays in Russia, said in an interview this week that anti-gay violence is widespread in Russia.

Out actor Matt Bomer (White Collar, The Normal Heart) narrates Hunted, which premieres Monday, October 6 on premium cable network HBO.

The film takes a look at some of the vigilante groups operating in Russia who regularly beat and torment gay people and post graphic videos of their encounters online.

“They use the pretext of fighting pedophilia in Russia to attack gay people,” a woman says in the film.

Appearing on HuffPost Live, Steele said the police turn a blind eye to the violence.

“Anti-gay attitudes are widespread, unfortunately, in Russia,” he said. “In Russia, there is no such thing as a gay hate crime.”

“We've documented over 30 vigilante groups in cities across Russia. And the kind of scenes that I filmed are commonplace, widespread. For some of these vigilante groups it's a regular Sunday pastime to lure someone to meet and then to taunt them and humiliate them in that way,” he said.