Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer, the stellar documentary that blew critics away at this year's Sundance Festival, has been picked up by HBO and will air in June. The film, directed by Mike Lerner and Maxim Pozdorovkin, follows the band's stings with authority, showing homemade footage and coverage of the trial for hooliganism that eventually landed 3 of the 11 members in prison. The Daily Beast has a great review up of the documentary, and one hopes that the additional widespread attention HBO could add to the Pussy Riot case might play a role in the release of the 2 members who remain in jail. But that's probably just wishful thinking. One thing's for sure: whatever this documentary could do, it's a hell of a lot more productive than getting hooligan tattoos in solidarity.
Though one member of the Russian feminist group, Yekaterina Samutsevich, has been released, both Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alekhina are still imprisoned and have been denied their pleas for clemency, even though Alekhina has a young child to care for.
