For a documentary that flashes tweets throughout and premiered tonight with a live Skype video Q&A with one of the Russian stars, the subject matter covers an amazingly anachronistic contemporary witch hunt. Pussy Riot—A Punk Prayer begins in February 2012 when a group of twenty-something Moscowite girls invade a cathedral to perform an anti-church/anti-Putin punk song. For their performance, the sweet and passionate young women wear smart brightly colored dressed with tights and mask their identity with knit caps that have eye and mouth holes crudely cut out. Because of this 40-second performance, the girls are hunted down, arrested and threatened with four-year sentences for offending the church members. Interestingly, the filmmakers and the press were granted more free access to the ensuing court drama than they would in US courts, which has allowed full exposure of the court case to the world. This film is another reminder that women are not automatically entitled to the liberal freedoms that we in the West are accustom to and expect. Even though the tribulations of the band Pussy Riot has made international headlines, the Russian restrictions on performance art is quite an eye opener.
Karen Henry is an Associate Editor at LA YOGA who volunteers in a variety of capacities for nonprofit organizations and artists around Los Angeles. She practices yoga as a counterbalance to her daily impact sports and is a mother of four grown children who also practice yoga . Now, she’s working on teaching yoga and joy of life to the grandkids!