(NEW YORK) Attention, documentary aficionados: last night, The Cinema Society premiered HBO’s Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer. Directors Mike Lerner and Maxim Pozdorovkin worked alongside a slew of celebrity guests to take in the film’s extraordinary and inspiring account. Need a brief recap? The Sundance-praised film tells the unbelievable story of young women seeking change to benefit their country through acts of performance art in Russia. In fact, according to Pozdorovkin, “it is going to go down in history as the most famous controversial piece of performance art”.
Guests like Patti Smith, Bryan Greenberg, Amber Tamblyn, Nanette Lepore, Alex Karpovsky, and Charlotte Ronson showed up for the occasion, along with Pussy Riot’s “Headlight” and “Puck,” two of the group members not arrested, were also present, donning colorful ski masks to hide their identities.
Lerner praised the celebs in attendance and spoke out for the film that he believes to be “the most exciting story in at least a decade.” His take on the film’s main purpose? To highlight the “women who are fighting to make country a better place by fighting for freedom of speech, tolerance, and equality.” As for his stance on the group’s fashion sense, Lerner says, “it was more of a protest statement than a fashion statement…but I have already seen fashion shoots and movies imitating that image, such as Spring Breakers.” Intriguing! After the screening and Q&A concluded, the afterparty action went down at Pravda. Riot-ous good times…
EMILY LESSARD
