Pussy RiotI used to own a tee-shirt that read “Music is The Weapon of The Future”. It’s fair to say I wore it more to look cool than because I thought it was in any way true. But now I am reminded of places in the world where music is being used as a weapon. It’s being used to make defiant statements and try to upset the status quo. Just like any weapon, the people daring enough to brandish it face serious consequences.

Enter Pussy Riot.

PUSSY RIOT – A PUNK PRAYER is a chapter of recent history. The Russian band is a hybrid of punk rock and installation art…and I dare suggest that Pussy Riot is a frame of mind. That frame of mind came together in 2011. They are less of a rock band in the traditional sense than they are a group of guerrilla performers. They use their songs – and especially their impromptu live performances – to voice messages of injustice and make a call to arms. In February 2012, one of these live performances took place inside Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. The performance was regarded as a desecration by the worshippers gathered, and got three of the band’s members (Nadia, Katia, and Masha) arrested and facing serious jail time.

What makes PUSSY RIOT – A PUNK PRAYER so interesting is the way it plays out less like a rock doc, and more like a courtroom drama. The film begins by showing us a rehearsal for the “Mother of God” number intended for the cathedral, and then takes us immediately to the day in question. It wants to get us to the inciting incident quickly, so stories like who these women are, and what sparked them to form a band have to wait. Once we see the performance and arrest, the filmmaking takes a bit of a leap forward – going from the immediacy of consumer cameras that caught the show as it happened, to the care and craft of this film’s directors.

It’s that care and craft that carries this film further than one believes it should go. If we are even allowed to see video of legal proceedings, we are used to seeing them through static, uninteresting broadcast news cameras. Directors Mike Lerner and Maxim Pozdorovkin have given PUSSY RIOT – A PUNK PRAYER a subtle beauty that one does not expect from courtroom footage. The resulting look is so stunning, that one might be inclined to wonder if some of these images were staged or dropped in as b-roll (they weren’t). The imagery allows the viewer something special: to see a great deal into who these (usually masked) women are. We see not just their conviction, but also see the weight of their actions begin to sink in.

They remain defiant throughout the film, but as the legal proceedings go on, we can sense the gravity seeping in.

What’s interesting is that besides their legal testimony, the women of Pussy Riot don’t get to say much about themselves. For that, the film turns to their parents. This is hardly a new trick, but what makes it feel fresh is the way PUSSY RIOT – A PUNK PRAYER waits until the end of the second act to do it. By the time we get there, it almost feels unnecessary: we understand what these women stand for, and how they got in the trouble they’re in. However, as we listen to their parents talk about their childhoods, along with the traits and behaviours they noticed in these women as children, we begin to feel like we’re hearing character witness testimony. These men and women, none of whom look like they would be fans of the music their daughters create, put a human spin on the enigmatic revolutionaries behind those balaclavas.

At the beginning of the film, the butterfly effect is evoked. In response to the entire fracas surrounding Pussy Riot, it’s said that if you drop a pebble into a pond, one of those ripples can become a tsunami. What PUSSY RIOT – A PUNK PRAYER beautifully illustrates, is the way the metaphorical pebble of the women performing in the cathedral became the tsunami of support surrounding their incarceration.

They claim to be jesters and holy fools, but by paying a price for their foolery, they became prophets and punk martyrs.

PUSSY RIOT – A PUNK PRAYER is playing Hot Docs once more on Saturday May 4th – 7pm at The Scotiabank Theatre.