New York Premiere!

Director Tatyana Bronstein in person!

Prima is a moving portrait of Larissa Ponomarenko, prima ballerina of the Boston Ballet, who has recently hung up her pointe shoes to pursue new avenues of self-expression. Through flashbacks to her journey from a difficult childhood and rigorous ballet training in Russia to her emergence as the prima ballerina of a leading American ballet company, the film captures Larissa's uniqueness as an artist of many emotional colors. Now, as she transitions from prima ballerina to mentor to aspiring dancers, she also magically re-invents herself as a dancer, showing a new expressivity and a more modern approach to her art in filmed improvisations in unexpected settings—a field, a forest, even a subway station!

Screening with:

ME: Story Of a Performance. Jopsu Ramu, Finland, 2013; 8m
ME: Story of a Performance is an intriguing collaboration between Finland and Japan. Choreographer/dancer Johanna Nuutinen performs a solo piece, which is photographed from different points of view to a haunting score by Jukka Backlund.