"Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer"

Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer, 2013

Dir.: Mike Lerner, Maxim Pozdorovkin

Prod.: Maxyne Franklin, Nick Fraser, Xenia Grubstein, Martin Herring, Mike Lerner, Havana Marking, Maxim Pozdorovkin, Nick Quested, Kate Townsend

It's here, it's here, it's HERE! The summer documentary series on HBO has arrived! I never knew how much I wanted this until it actually happened! 

It started last night, but I got home late last night and I stayed up way too late watching the doc and by the time I finished, I was way too tired to blog. Especially because this particular doc is mainly in Russian, meaning subtitles, meaning every time I looked down for a second to jot down some notes, I missed something, so there was a lot of rewinding involved. Luckily, my husband kept his word and watched with me, and helpfully read the subtitles when he noticed my head was down. 

HBO really chose a strong leader for the first doc of the summer season with "Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer".

You probably have heard of Pussy Riot without even realizing it, especially if you were an avid news watcher early in 2012. They made CNN and world news headlines. 

A group of Russian women of varying ages, outraged by the re-election of Vladimir Putin in 2011, stage visually stunning, guerrilla-style protests, hiding their identities with brightly colored clothing and covering their faces with balaclavas (ski masks), looking like Luchador Barbie.

Accessories include: ATTITUDE!

They scream feminist, anti-government lyrics set to driving punk music, throw confetti and shoot off colored smoke bombs. They are Pussy Riot - they are strong, outspoken women, and they are angry.

In February of 2012, members of Pussy Riot decide to stage a performance at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow...on the altar...during a service. Yeah. These girls have BALLS. 

Naturally, security is called and three of the members of Pussy Riot are arrested on moral charges.

The documentary actually begins with video footage of the arrest, followed by interrogations of the three women who were arrested: three good looking, well spoken women in their early-to-mid-twenties. They are introduced as Nadia, Katia and Masha.

otherwise known as the hottest bitches in cell block go-fuck-yourself

In one interview with the police, Nadia is asked, "Why do you fight the Russian Orthodox Church?" 

"Did you see where the Easter services were held? The cathedral symbolizes the union of church and state," she replies. "That's not how it should be...the Patriarch stands at the altar. But a woman should occupy it. As a member of Pussy Riot, I believe that women should be allowed to run services and that women should stand at the altar. Because she is not a sinful creature." 

The rest of the documentary follows the trial and persecution of the three Pussy Riot members. Cameras, recorders, reporters, journalists, media of all kinds are allowed access to the courtroom. Not one camera is shooed away, no journalist are asked to turn of their recording devices. 

As Nadia is led, handcuffed, into a courtroom, she has nothing but smiles for the overwhelming amount of reporters that show up. She chats with them, flirts with them, states that Pussy Riot is a group that Russia needs. Her husband Peter shouts, "You look good, Nadia!" 

"I always look good," is her coquettish reply. 

Katia receives a welcome from her family, who ask her if prison has a library. She replies yes, but the books are old and that new books take a long time to arrive. Her father assures her that they would send her new ones but “You’ll be out before they reach you.”

As for Masha, she is asked by a reporter if her son was going to be taken away. Masha replies, “No...When the investigator presented the charges, he asked me a question: is your child being cared for? And if he needs to call social services. I almost had a nervous breakdown. I don’t want to hear a word about social services. And if this horrific theater affects my child in any way, that will be the worst that could happen.”

Pussy Riot’s lawyer, Violetta, is a ball-buster. She’s tough and fights hard for her clients. She disagrees with the court’s decision to keep the girls in jail instead of releasing them on bail, insisting that this is just going to fuel protest fires, rather than smother them.

“Punk has never existed in Russia, and neither has performance art. Nobody understands it,” explains another Pussy Riot lawyer.

Meanwhile, members of The Russian Orthodox "carriers of the cross" refer to Nadia as a “demon” and the other girls as “witches”, and discuss how in the 16^th century, the girls would have been hanged or burned. They hold their own protests outside the courtroom as the trial commences, singing hymns and carrying pictures of religious icons. 

As the Pussy Riot trial gains momentum, supporters from all over the world – America to Amsterdam to Ireland – are posting YouTube videos and making statements, calling for “Free Pussy Riot”. Madonna and Yoko Ono make public announcements in their support of the imprisoned women. Madonna even performs, in Moscow, with “Pussy Riot” written on her back, and wearing a balaclava.

CHECK!

THIS!

SHIT!

OUT!!!!!

I think the one thing you must keep in mind while you are watching this film is, Did these women really do anything wrong? 

What I mean by this is, did they deserve to be jailed for their "crimes"? In America, they would have a right to protest. In a draconian Russian court system, minor offenses are deemed jail-worthy. Do they really "deserve" to be imprisoned for protesting at a church? While the documentary itself gives the viewer its opinion, it's done in a way that it's really left up to the viewer themselves to decide for sure, which I think makes this a wonderful doc to watch with a group, especially if you're the lively debate type of group. 

Next week: "Love, Marilyn" - a look into the very private life of one of Hollywood's most beloved stars. 

“Art is not a mirror to reflect the world, but a hammer with which to shape it” – Bertolt Brecht

Want to join the movement to Free Pussy Riot? Visit http://freepussyriot.org/about

"Prostitution: Behind the Veil"

Prostitution: Behind the Veil, 2004

Dir.: Nahid Persson

Prod.: Jakob Hogel, Nahid Persson

OK I know it's been a long time - almost a year - since I last posted. I promised I would come back and to be more devoted, then I made one post and poof! There I go again. Frankly, I am ashamed I couldn't make the commitment. But, to be fair, at the same time I was aiming to come back, I was planning my wedding. Yup! I got married in September! Go us! It wasn't easy but we had a lot of help from friends and family and we had a great day. 

Anyway, I really, really want to get back into this project of documenting documentaries (har-dee-har-har). I really do love the genre and there's just so many, on so many different subjects! Last time I tackled a pretty lighthearted subject with God Is the Bigger Elvis. This time, I have a bit of a darker subject to tackle: the state of women in Iran. 

Filmmaker Nahid Persson was born in Iran, however she escaped to Sweden in 1982 when Islamic fundamentalists took control. Seventeen years later, she returned, shocked to discover poverty was rampant and social justice had deteriorated. 

Iran used to be one of the most liberal Muslim countries. Now, however, the Koran is considered law, and religious infractions are considered crimes, punishable by imprisonment, torture and execution. 

In Prostitution: Behind the Veil, Persson chronicles the struggles of two women she meets quite by accident during a visit to Iran. The film is narrated by Nahid Persson herself. She first meets Habib, a man who works as a fortune teller using parakeets. Yes, parakeets. Apparently this is a really common thing! The guy sets a parakeet down and the bird picks a fortune out for you and you pay for it. I kid you not! 

This is not a screenshot from the documentary but it's the closest thing I could find. 

Anyway, Habib is run off the street corner he is fortune-telling on by the religious police and Persson and her crew end up following him home. Habib lives in a tenement building with ten other people with no running water or toilets, just a water pump in the courtyard. While there, Persson meets Fariba and Mina, two young women in their early-to-mid 20s, with a child each, who make their living through prostitution. 

They live in tiny rooms with barely any furniture and rags covering the windows. There are no locks on their doors. They have no beds but instead sleep on the floor with their children. They casually chat as Persson films and Mina threads Fariba's eyebrows, which are as thick and unruly as Frida Khalo's. 

They talk about sex and what they do to make a living, but also about the guilt and shame they feel. They talk about their methods of birth control - condoms are preferred, because they protect them against diseases (they are both fond of flavored condoms). Persson explains that when Islamic power rose in Iran, they banned all contraceptives. Because of this, the population doubled within a short period of time. By the time the government realized their mistake and lifted the ban on contraceptives, it was too late and overpopulation was already a growing concern. Fariba also tells Persson that the religious police tend to look the other way when it comes to prostitution, and confesses that she herself has slept with the chief of the religious police, and he paid her $20. "He was rough," she adds."I didn't like it."

Later, as the girls smoke heroin together, Fariba pulls out a photo album and says she wants to "show that we didn't always live like this." 

Fariba was married to a young man from a respected, wealthy family. Her brother-in-law was a medical student. Her father-in-law was a literary professor. Less than a year before this interview, Fariba's husband was arrested for drug use, and sentenced to life in prison. Mina's story is shockingly similar. Her husband is also in jail, serving a 35-year sentence for smuggling, selling drugs and murder. He was the one who was responsible for getting Mina addicted to heroin. 

In the film, Persson introduces us to the concept of a sighe. It is something that is perfectly legal in Islamic Iran. It is when a man takes on an "extra" wife that he can later sell to another man for a profit. During the time of the sighe marriage, which is negotiated with a verbal contract and then sealed by a mullah (Islamic clergy), the woman must act as a wife must - she must cover her head, ask her husband for permission to leave the house, and service him in bed. Sighe marriages can last any period of time, from ten minutes to 99 years, and the woman is often paid a fee for her participation. 

Habib, the parakeet fortune teller who is a man of about sixty, makes a sighe marriage of six months with a 17 year old girl that he'd only known for about ten minutes. Persson narrates that girls in Iran are married off as young as nine years old. It turns out that Mina has a sighe that she has a two-month contract with. She shows Fariba the marks on her body where he has cut, kicked and scratched her, and cries as she confesses he hits her 20-month-old daughter as well. 

One thing that I wished Persson covered more in the documentary was how Mina and Fariba solicit their customers. I know that sounds like an odd thing to say, but for a documentary called Prostitution: Behind the Veil, she does not focus very much on the actual profession of prostitution. She follows Mina and Fariba only one time each. Heartbreakingly enough, they are forced to bring their children with them as they solicit, since there is no one else to watch them. Fariba makes $5 off a cabbie, who forces her to buy condoms from a nearby pharmacy because "it isn't right" for him to do it himself. He allows Persson to film him as he drives and haggles over price with Fariba, telling her that he wants people to see that Iran has gone to hell. Mina picks up two young men in a car who pay her $10 each. They drive her and her baby to their apartment. She hands the baby off to one of the men as she goes into the bedroom with the other. "When he's done, you can come in," she says, flicking her head scarf over her shoulder. 

Persson reflects more on the concept of sighe marriages and the religious power oppressing the women of Iran more than the actual act of prostitution and how so many women fall into that trap. She mentions how grateful she is that she can return to Sweden where she has opportunities, and women in Iran cannot and do not. 

There was really no moral or message to this documentary. Persson does include an epilogue about Fariba and Mina, but the information is sparse. I wish she had gotten more interviews with more prostitutes. She does manage to talk to Fariba's sister-in-law and mother, but no one from Mina's family. I would have liked a little more background on the girls. 

Though I was intrigued and saddened by the information I learned in the documentary, I really wish it had a little more meat on its bones. It did make me grateful that I have grown up in a country where I am not considered property, and where I can get an education and vote and make my own choices. Persson made it very clear that she was glad she left when she did. But I feel like the film lacked something, and it was probably more stories, but I thank Nahid Persson for making this film and showing us what is going on in other parts of the world that we have no idea about.

"God Is the Bigger Elvis"

God Is the Bigger Elvis, 2011

Dir.: Rebecca Cammisa

Prod.: Sheila Nevins, Julie Anderson, Rebecca Cammisa

A few months ago, my best friend Meredith allowed me to use her HBOGO account, and I couldn't thank her enough. HBOGO is like Hulu, except it is exclusively HBO programming - movies, series, and, of course, documentaries. One of the first things I did when I gained HBOGO access was scope out their documentaries section, and boy oh boy did I have a field day. The one that grabbed my attention first was the Oscar nominated short documentary God Is the Bigger Elvis, which had a screen cap of a smiling nun, her arms outstretched, Julie Andrews-style.

First of all, what an awesome title. Second, I think nuns are great. I don't know why, exactly. Maybe that's due to my early love of The Sound of Music, maybe it's because my mother took me to see Sister Act when it first came out in theaters, maybe it's because those calendars of "Nuns Having Fun" crack me up. 

It was all fun and games until Sister Ruth rear-ended the Mother Superior

Whatever the reason, I think nun culture is fascinating. I mean, these women give up everything - their families, their social lives, their fashion tastes - to serve God. They come from so many different backgrounds, but all came together for their mutual love of God. It's a pretty groovy thing, if you ask me.


Though only a half-hour long, God Is the Bigger Elvis manages to tell a beautiful, moving story – one of Dolores Hart, an actress from the '50s and '60s who had performed alongside the biggest heartthrobs of the day: Montgomery Clift, Cary Grant, Marlon Brando, Warren Beatty, and yes, the King himself. In her mid-twenties, she gave it all up, broke off her engagement, and became a nun at the Abbey of Regina Laudis in Bethlehem, Connecticut - an enclosed Benedictine monastery and working farm. It's the only one of its kind in the United States.

Now known as Mother Prioress Dolores Hart, she still currently resides there, one of 36 nuns who follow strict Benedictine guidelines. They pray and sing 7 times a day, observe 3 periods of silence a day, and work on the farm. Mother Prioress takes appointments to speak to people who come to the monastery about their suffering, and help them find hope in dismal situations. She also enjoys bird watching, listening to opera and spending time with her African Grey parrot, Toby. She also spends time personally answering fan mail that she still receives daily.

Dolores was a blonde, blue-eyed bombshell back in her day. She was nineteen years old when she was offered a seven year studio contract. She acted in ten films, including Loving You, Lonelyhearts and Where the Boys Are. Dolores has zero regrets about quitting her acting career. “I never felt I was leaving Hollywood. I never felt I was leaving anything that I was given. The abbey was like a grace of God that just entered my life in a way that was totally unexpected, and God was the vehicle,” she pauses here and gives a big smile. “He was the bigger Elvis.”

Her first encounter with the Abbey came when she was acting on a show on Broadway in the late fifties. Dolores was experiencing fatigue, and a friend suggested she go to the Abbey to recuperate. Hesitant at first, she soon fell in love with the peacefulness of it all. During her time there, she met with the Reverend Mother. 

“The concern that I had was that it was wrong as a Catholic to be in the movies because, sexually, you could be aroused by boys and you could get involved sexually with men…and the leading star was Elvis. She said, ‘Well, why not? You’re a girl! Chastity doesn’t mean that you don’t appreciate what God created. Chastity says, ‘Use it well.’ I came away with a sense of peace.”

After she returned from the abbey, Dolores became engaged to Don Robinson, a young architect. To my delight, Don Robinson is interviewed in this documentary. He speaks nothing but kind words about Dolores. In the midst of planning a wedding and building a house and a life together, on the night of their engagement party in 1963, Dolores tells Don she does not want to get married. She was going to Regina Laudis to take her vows.

God Is the Bigger Elvis also interviews other nuns that live alongside Dolores Hart, offering perspective of her as a Mother Prioress and the pillar she is to her abbey. One of the most terrific things about Dolores Hart is that she truly is a wonderful woman – you can absolutely see why Hollywood was mad for her. Though she is no longer the blonde pinup model she was in 1960, her charm and wit shines through, even though she is dressed in a nun’s habit. She has a smile and a kind word for everyone. 

The best part about this documentary was that I smiled the entire time I watched it. If you have a half hour to spare and are looking for a great, fuzzy documentary filled with nuns having fun, try to get your hands on God Is the Bigger Elvis.

"Trembling Before G-d"

Trembling Before G-d, 2001

Dir.: Sandi Simcha Dubowski

Prod.: Sandi Simcha Dubowski, Philippa Kowarsky, Marc Smolowitz, James Velaise

Leah and Malka have been together for ten years. They met while in high school, in Brooklyn. They moved to Miami where they have a beautifully supportive relationship. Leah and Malka are also Orthodox Jews, and every day struggle with their love for God and their love for each other.

As a Reform Jew myself, I was intrigued by this documentary. I had not had any experiences with the Hasidic or Orthodox community, but my fiance Matthew had.

Matthew was raised in what I like to all a "religiously neutral" home. He is the product of a Catholic mother and a Jewish father. Ironically, while his older sister was confirmed into the Catholic faith, Matthew decided, when we became engaged, he would convert to Judaism. The Orthodox community, it turns out, does not accept Reform converts as true Jews, and often shun them. Matthew had a very unfortunate run-in with an Orthodox rabbi when he called to inquire about a mikvah (ritual bath for spiritual cleansing).

Matthew was very upset. He called his sponsoring rabbi, who soothed his worries and explained to him that, like most religions, Hasidic and Orthodox Judaism has, unfortunately, its own set of biases and prejudices - not just the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) community. It has a long history of sexism as well, which we are fortunately moving out of. But with the LGBTQ community has been coming more and more into the forefront, and the people in  that community do the only thing they can do: turn to the Talmud (the Torah).

In "Trembling Before G-d", director Sandi Simcha Dubowski travels from Los Angeles to New York to Jerusalem to examine not only the lives of gays and lesbians who are Orthodox and Hasidic, their ups and downs, their struggles, but the Jewish laws that are against this lifestyle and how the times are (very, very) slowly changing to accomodate them. Not all of those interviewed agreed to show their faces on camera. Some are shown in silhouette, others have their faces blurred. Dubowski interviews rabbis who are against homosexuality at all costs, rabbis who are gay themselves, gay Orthodox men, lesbian Orthodox women, and psychotherapists who are Orthodox.

It's no secret to anyone what the Bible says about homosexuality. Leviticus states that man shall not lie with man and it is an abomination. Rabbi Steve Greenberg, the first openly gay Orthodox rabbi, is trying to re-examine the Talmud and make the Orthodox community more accepting and open to gays and lesbians. "I want Orthodox parents to say, 'There are other ways to read the Torah - let's learn."

We meet David, from Los Angeles, a gay Orthodox man who came out as a teenager and struggled with his sexuality his entire life, and hoped therapy would "change" him. He tries hard to accept the fact that he will never have children through marriage.

We meet Malki from Boro Park, New York, a woman who is convinced she is the only Hasidic lesbian in the world because she has never met another. She entered into a marriage of convenience with another man, because she didn't want to lose her family. When they evenutally divorced, "my ex husband was very understanding. He knew it wasn’t a marriage made in heaven. I think my parents probably even knew. I don’t know if they knew what was going to happen when I got divorced. I feel like I am an outsider…there’s no place for me there."

We meet Israel, a Brooklynite, a gay man who has all but renounced his Orthodox faith and has been shunned by his family. “I know I live in my faith," he explains. "I don’t know what that faith is. I don’t know what God is. I certainly know it’s not the God that tells me I shouldn’t do this, I shouldn’t do that…that’s not the God that redeemed Israel out of Egypt, that’s not the God that stood by me.”

We meet Mark, a Londoner and a gay, HIV-positive, Orthodox man who was kicked out of several yeshivas (religious schools) for his gay activities, and sent to Jerusalem as a teenager by his father and his rabbi where there were "no gay people". "Big mistake," Mark says impishly, "because that's where I came out." Footage follows of Mark dressing in drag and performing at gay pride rallies, alternated with shots of him praying in yeshiva and singing religious songs with his friends.

And, as previously mentioned, we meet "Malka" and "Leah". Leah explains that they refused to give up their Orthodox practices and beliefs once they began their relationship - instead, it was their duty to make them stronger. They refused to be shown on camera, but even with their faces obscured, it is very obvious that they are deeply in love with one another, as well as being religious and having a close relationship with God. At one point, Malka is counseling a young Orthodox woman over the phone, one who was forced into marriage at seventeen and is carrying on an affair with another woman: “Why do you feel that being gay takes you away from God?" she implores. "You’re going crazy and you have no where to turn. Maybe turn to God and he can help you. You’re not lost…God is there for you! Maybe you need to knock on the door a little but God is always there for you to talk to – no appointments, no waiting, anytime 24/7.”

Malka and Leah's passion for God and for one another is very touching and, to me, completely makes the point of Dubowski's film. The way they hold each other's hands during their interviews, the way they constantly remind one another how lucky they are to be in one another's life - the way Leah holds Malka in her arms as she sobs over the fact her parents wanted nothing to do with her when she came out to them. It makes you wonder how anyone could think this love is wrong. Orthodox or not, Leah and Malka are like any other couple. They eat, sleep and pray together, they observe the holidays together, they are devoted to one another, and they are devoted to God. How could they be anything but a model couple? How could someone look at this beautiful, spiritual couple and condemn them? I was almost angry by this thought! Infuriated! Frustrated!

However, Dubowski does not end on a sour note. He concludes the film with the following epilogue:

In New York, for over 25 years, Orthodox and Hasidic gay men have devoted themselves to studying Jewish law in a weekly Talmud group.
Now, underground gay and lesbian groups such as The Gay and Lesbian Yeshiva Day School Alumni Association and the Orthodykes meet in New York, Jerusalem, London, Los Angeles, Miami and on the Internet.

I honestly enjoyed "Trembling Before G-d". Not only am I a Jew, I am an LGBTQ ally. I believe in the right to love, the right to marry, the right to practice freely. "Trembling Before G-d" was such an interesting look at a side of my own religion that I had never really explored before.

You don't need to be a Jew or even very religious to appreciate the beauty of Dubowski's work in "Trembling Before G-d". You just have to be open, accepting, and understand that though it seems like some people are stubborn and biased, they are very slowly accepting.