DoC UtAh

I recently ventured into the abstract environment of the critically acclaimed "Doc Utah".  It is a compilation of documentary films on display for the world to see in St. George, Utah. I brought a hot date with me to see the featured Prima, directed by Tatyana Bronstein.  It is a portrait film of the Prima Ballerina of the Boston Ballet, Larissa Ponomarenko.  It shows her triumphant transition into the American society from growing up in the Russian ballet training scene.  It explains her climb to the top, mixed in with the human struggles and transitions through life's dynamics.  It was an excellent portrayal of the intimate and personal emotions of human life.  That, to me, is the major issue being shown in this very film.  She grew to be the best, and once her ride was over, she felt extremely lost.  The struggle and reality of human displacement was, in my belief, the director's canvas and target for conveyance to the audiences.  The director seems to be an extreme advocate for individuality, and not being afraid to let that individuality show in its brightest colors during the hardest times of life, especially when humans feel as though they do not have an identity or lack association.  It shows an ambiance of timelessness in how humans overtime, though technology has advanced, have relatively stayed the same when it comes to expressing emotions and coping with loss and distress. The filmmaker infers that without individuality and the freedoms of America, the world would stay in a lost and displaced state.  Bronstein makes a great point to that argument with the very life of Larissa Ponomarenko. The film acknowledges the bleakness and detainment of opportunity in her life in Russia, thus portraying the value system in that part of the world a sort of hand-me-down attitude and civil structure.  Compare that to the second half of the film where it shows that she can and does have a life out of dance because America afforded that to her, which was subliminally given to the viewers by showing her and her happiness in life after dance that only America, not Russia.  The very tactic of displaying her way of dance and how it is a symbol of her freedom by choosing to stay in America after her career was over.  The filmmaker also shows her dancing in very public places such as subways, the beach, a sidewalk in downtown Boston, and other places that she wouldn't have been able to do if she wasn't in such a place.  The viewer was always up close and personal with her facial expressions when she would talk about Russia, which were very solemn and tight, versus loose and jubilant when she spoke of her life now.  A counter could be raised as to the colonialist view of the filmmaker.  It can be noted that using the colonialism paradigm to view inside the reality of the film making process would show a very different side, a very much darker side of the film.  By using that lens to look through, one would see just how much pride, arrogance, and ignorance was used to base this film as a propaganda of sorts to be painted on all of the at-ease minds of the audience.