Pokasatelnij protsess: Istorija Pussy Riot

In February 2012 the all-girl punk art collective Pussy Riot, disguised in their signature day-glo coloured balaclavas, staged a provocation in Christ the Saviour Cathedral in Moscow. Three of the collective, arrested on the spot, were subsequently put on trial for disrupting public order. This Sundance award-winning documentary follows the trial and sentencing in all its detail, revealing in the process, in each case, the human face behind the mask of provocation.
The entire episode of course has been enormously mediatised. Blogs, twitters and support pages continue to this day to noisily follow the fate of the trio. Much of this colourful material finds its way into the present documentary. Yet the main strength of this impressive film lies in the watchful way the directors have filmed the court proceedings. The girls are spectacularly eloquent and moving. Their defence, in a way, is just as much an act of dramatic “performance art” as was their original provocation.

Mike Lerner

Oscar-nominated producer, Mike Lerner has been making arts, travel and popular culture documentaries for twenty-five years. He has produced films for many international broadcasters including BBC, Channel Four, Five, ITV, Discovery, HBO, PBS.He has won numerous awards including, Academy Nomination for Best Documentary Feature, 4 Sundance Awards (Grand Jury, Best Director, Audience, Cinematography), Grierson Award for Best Documentary, Prix Italia, nominated for 2 Royal Television Society Award and 2 IDA Awards, Winner Best Documentary Moscow Film Festival.

Maxim Pozdorovkin

Maxim Pozdorovkin’s first feature film, Capital, is a modern-day city symphony about the construction of Astana, a utopian city in the center of Kazakhstan. The film has been shown at film festivals around the world, exhibited at art galleries, and broadcast internationally. Other current projects include Citizen Bout (post-production), a documentary about the international arms dealer Viktor Bout. Pozdorovkin’s curatorial work includes Flicker Alley’s Landmarks of Early Soviet Film box-set, which received The 2012 National Society of Film Critics - Film Heritage Award. Pozdorovkin holds a PhD from Harvard University and is presently an artist fellow at Harvard's Society of Fellows.