Doesn’t matter if you’re one of Russia’s richest business men or an all girl punk band, you get the same punishment. Here’s hoping they form some sort of supergroup in prison.
From the New York Times: Proudly Bearing Elders’ Scars, Their Skin Says ‘Never Forget’
See: The Memory Thief
Our newest film, about the long, dangerous, and secret escape from dictatorial oppression of Avishai Yeganyahu and the Beta Israel, a 2,500-year-old Jewish community from the Ethiopian mountains. Avishai, with the help of co-director Shari Rothfarb Mekonen, breaks his 20-year silence about his brutal kidnapping as a child in Sudan during his community’s exodus from Africa and subsequent quest to understand Jewish identity spanning the globe.
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Pussy Riot was convicted of hooliganism in Russia today. They have been sentenced to two years in prison. Here’s a selection of Maria Alyokhina’s closing statement, in which she discusses poetry (via n+1):
I would like to point out that very similar methods were used during the trial of the poet [Joseph] Brodsky. His poems were defined as “so-called” poems; the witnesses for the prosecution hadn’t actually read them—just as a number of the witnesses in our case didn’t see the performance itself and only watched the clip online. Our apologies, it seems, are also being defined by the collective prosecuting body as “so-called” apologies. Even though this is offensive. And I am overwhelmed with moral injury and psychological trauma. Because our apologies were sincere. I am sorry that so many words have been uttered and you all still haven’t understood this. Or it is calculated deviousness when you talk about our apologies as insincere. I don’t know what you still need to hear from us. But for me this trial is a “so-called” trial. And I am not afraid of you. I am not afraid of falsehood and fictitiousness, of sloppily disguised deception, in the verdict of the so-called court.
Ridiculous.
More here.
Just another “so-called” trial in a “so-called” modern democracy.
Pussy Riot. What punk rock is.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m8wnb7S9701qa744vo1_500.jpg)
Pussy Riot was convicted of hooliganism in Russia today. They have been sentenced to two years in prison. Here’s a selection of Maria Alyokhina’s closing statement, in which she discusses poetry (via n+1):
I would like to point out that very similar methods were used during the trial of the poet [Joseph] Brodsky. His poems were defined as “so-called” poems; the witnesses for the prosecution hadn’t actually read them—just as a number of the witnesses in our case didn’t see the performance itself and only watched the clip online. Our apologies, it seems, are also being defined by the collective prosecuting body as “so-called” apologies. Even though this is offensive. And I am overwhelmed with moral injury and psychological trauma. Because our apologies were sincere. I am sorry that so many words have been uttered and you all still haven’t understood this. Or it is calculated deviousness when you talk about our apologies as insincere. I don’t know what you still need to hear from us. But for me this trial is a “so-called” trial. And I am not afraid of you. I am not afraid of falsehood and fictitiousness, of sloppily disguised deception, in the verdict of the so-called court.
Ridiculous.
Just another “so-called” trial in a “so-called” modern democracy.
Pussy Riot. What punk rock is.
Pussy Riot’s members were sentenced to prison today by the Russian court. They are just the newest in a long line of Russians punished for speaking out against the Kremlin.
7th Art has several films about outspoken Russians who have suffered (or worse) as a result of their vocal opposition.
UPDATE: The Daily Beast has commentary from Anna Nemtsova on Pussy Riot’s sentencing.
As the 2012 drought rivals the Dustbowl, it’s clear that some sort of action must be taken. But, as every expert has noted, and as every major study has shown, it will not be easy to make the changes necessary, because of how people experience the weather.
The film, Owning the Weather, shows us, we have been trying to modify the weather for centuries. Are there signs that we’re headed towards a breakthrough? Whatever the outcome of the weather, it’s clear: we own it.
Releasing award-winning documentaries & indie fiction films to the world. 7thart.com
