Screening of 'Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer" doc canceled in Moscow

Screening of ‘Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer” doc canceled in Moscow

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Russian feminist punk-rock band Pussy Riot members Maria Alyokhina, left, Yekaterina Samutsevich and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova sit in a glass-walled cage in a courtroom after the judge delivered the verdict at the Khamovnichesky Court in Moscow. Judge Marina Syrova sentenced the trio, who were found guilty of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred or hostility after singing a song insulting Vladimir Putin in the Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow earlier this year ahead of presidential elections in Russia, to two years in prison. (Maxim Shipenkov / EPA)

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Russian police officers detain a Pussy Riot supporter near the Khamovnichesky Court in Moscow during the court hearing. The court has found Russian feminist punk-rock band Pussy Riot members Yekaterina Samutsevich, Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova guilty of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred or hostility after singing a song insulting Vladimir Putin in the Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow earlier this year ahead of presidential elections in Russia, and sentenced them to two years of imprisonment. (Yuri Kochetkov / EPA)

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A policeman tries to detain a masked supporter of the Russian punk group Pussy Riot inside the Turkish embassy in Moscow. (Misha Japaridze / Associated Press)

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A Pussy Riot protester demonstrates at St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church in New York. (Peter Foley / EPA)

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Demonstrators shout slogans in support of the Russian punk group Pussy Riot during a protest in front of the Sagrada Familia church in Barcelona, Spain. (Manu Fernandez / Associated Press)

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Supporters of feminist punk band Pussy Riot protest near the Russian embassy in London. (Carl Court / AFP/Getty Images)

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Supporters of Russian band Pussy Riot perform during a demonstration near the Russian embassy in Berlin. (Barbara Sax / AFP/Getty Images)

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Supporters of Russian band Pussy Riot participate in a demonstration of solidarity in Hamburg, northern Germany. (Marcus Brandt / AFP/Getty Images)

By Mark Olsen

Dec. 28, 2013 3:51 PM PT

Just days after the release of two band members from Russian prisons, the political activists known collectively as Pussy Riot continue to make headlines and spark controversy.

A screening of a documentary on the group, “Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer,” had been scheduled for Sunday in Moscow with the newly-freed Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolonnikova in attendance. As reported by Buzzfeed, that screening has been canceled by the order of the head of Moscow’s cultural department.

Directed by Mike Lerner and Maxim Pozdorovkin, the doc premiered this year at the Sundance Film Festival, received a small theatrical release before airing on HBO and has made the short list of 15 films still vying for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

The canceled screening was said to be the third thwarted attempt to publicly screen the film in Russia.

Since being released Monday, Alyokhina, 25, and Tolokonnikova, 24, announced that Pussy Riot would no longer perform as a musical group and would focus their efforts toward reforming the Russian penal system and exposing human rights abuses.

“The scariest thing about Putin’s Russia is the impossibility to speak and be heard,” Tolokonnikova said during a news conference this week in Moscow, the AP reported. “We still want to do what we said in our last performance for which we spent two years in prison: drive him away.”

In a message on Twitter dated Dec. 28 and translated by Buzzfeed, Tolokonnikova said, “They let us out, but won’t let us show a film about Pussy Riot. That’s the Russian Government.”

Screening of ‘Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer” doc canceled in Moscow

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