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HBO Documentary Films heats up the summer with compelling new films on Monday nights, kicking off a new ten-week anthology series Monday, June 10, exclusively on HBO; and the first one, to kick it off is Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer.
On Feb. 21, 2012, members of the feminist art collective Pussy Riot, donning their colorful trademark balaclavas, participated in a 40-second “punk prayer protest” on the altar of Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral before being detained. Arrested and tried for trespassing, wearing “inappropriate” sleeveless dresses and disrupting social order, Nadia, Masha and Katia were accused of religious hatred in a trial that reverberated around the world and transformed the face of Russian society.
An official selection of the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, where it received the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Punk Spirit, PUSSY RIOT: A PUNK PRAYER tells their story with exclusive interviews and unprecedented access to courtroom footage. Filmed over the course of six months by directors Mike Lerner (HBO’s “Afghan Star”) and Maxim Pozdorovkin, PUSSY RIOT: A PUNK PRAYER reveals the real people behind the balaclavas. Through interviews with band members, family, and the defense team in addition to unprecedented footage of the trial, the film highlights the forces that transformed these women from playful political activists to modern-day icons, exposing the state of Russian justice in the modern era. Mixing farce and tragedy, PUSSY RIOT: A PUNK PRAYER shows how Nadia, Masha and Katia battled a system determined to make an example of them, featuring footage of the defendants on trial, where they were placed in a glass cage, as well as visceral performances and rehearsals of Pussy Riot shot in and around Moscow. Organizations like Amnesty International and celebrities such as Sting, Paul McCartney, Yoko Ono and Madonna spoke out in support of their cause and freedom of speech worldwide.
Watch Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer Video Trailer
PUSSY RIOT: A PUNK PRAYER kicks off HBO’s Summer Series MONDAY, JUNE 10 (9:00-10:30 p.m. ET/PT), exclusively on HBO. Other HBO play dates: June 10 (4:35 a.m.), 13 (3:45 p.m., 1:05 a.m.), 16 (2:15 p.m.), 18 (10:30 a.m.) and 22 (4:45 p.m.)
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