General Information

Author/Creator

Sackler, Madeleine, director.

Language

Belarusian, English, Russian.

Subtitles

English

Published

United States : Sackler, Madeleine

Physical Description

Blu-Ray (76 min.)

Digital ver. identifier

HU_OSA_00005076

Contents/Summary

Summary

Creating provocative theater carries great personal risks: emotional, financial and artistic. For the members of the Belarus Free Theatre, there are additional risks: censorship, imprisonment, and exile. When authorities forbid critical examinations of politics, suicide, sexuality, and alcoholism, the Free Theatre responds by injecting these taboos into performances that are staged underground. But flaunting government censorship and repression comes at some considerable risk. Members of the company have been beaten, fired from other jobs, and threatened with rape. Even being an audience member requires some serious subterfuge. Comprised of smuggled footage and uncensored interviews, the film goes behind the scenes with the acclaimed troupe of imaginative and subversive performers. The documentary picks up the story in 2010, with the state crackdown on dissenters sixteen years after Belarus’ President Alexander Lukashenko takes power. In the aftermath of a dubious presidential election in 2012, the state secret services continue to target the Free Theatre, forcing its members to make a desperate choice: flee the country and continue to create work in exile, or stay and risk imprisonment.

Subjects

Genre

Documentary films

Bibliographic Information

Note

Verzio Film Festival Submission

Copyright Status

Copyright by Dogwoof

Library Special Collection

Verzio Film Festival Submission

Holdings

Item Type	Current Location	Call Number	Status	Shelving Location	Public Note
Blu-Ray Disc	OSA Film Library	FL Record 3402	Available	-	-
Digital film	OSA Film Library	FL Record 3402 (HU_OSA_00005076.mp4)	Available		Access Copy, MP4 format