The Ballad of Bering
Strait (documentary)
Picture: B-
Sound: B Extras: C+ Main Program: B-
It is almost becoming a cliché to have documentaries about
musicians. Far beyond the Rockumentary
days, we have seen Wim Wenders get a second wind out of the Buena Vista
Social Club (1999) and Sam Jones’ I Am Trying to Break Your Heart – A
Film about Wilco (2002, reviewed elsewhere on this site). The Ballad of Bering Strait (2003),
about the Russian Country band named after the geographical connection between
Russia and Alaska, is another recent unique entry.
Vocalist Natasha had a father who died as the head of the
Soviet analytical team who investigated how to clean up the nightmarish
Chernobyl nuclear accident, Lydia is the other female vocalist who tells it
like it is, Ilya was featured as a kid on The Today Show when he was
considered a child prodigy via Glasnost, and the rest of the six band members
have their own interesting stories to share.
Of all things, Robert Altman’s Nashville briefly
crossed my mind, though this is dissimilar in many ways. The band is following the American Dream in
a way, but in their case, it is about having some kind of new life instead of
rising to a better one as if they had been in the U.S. all the long. Obviously, this is nowhere as political, and
multi-layered. Like Altman’s
masterwork, if you do not like Country music, you will find this harder to sit
through. The program runs under two
hours.
The documentary was shot on High Definition video, but the
DVD does not quite demonstrate that.
The box says the presentation is full screen 4 X 3, when it is actually
16 X 9 widescreen TV ratio. The
transfer is mixed as a result, seeming on the light side at times. The two soundtracks are Dolby Digital 2.0
Stereo and a 5.1 AC-3 mix that does not have as much bass as one would
expect. The two-channel version seems
more naturalistic, while the 5.1 seems stretched out. The extras include a music video, extended concert and
documentary scenes, and trailers that fans and those who enjoyed the program
would appreciate.
Bering Strait was still together as of presstime and if
they do not make it big, this program will give them a cult status. They are interesting, but the story is one
we have seen before, give or take the twist of being from a former country that
might have detested Country for obvious reasons. It is worth a look now, and is likely to age in some interesting
ways.
- Nicholas Sheffo
