A group of teenagers who have formed a band and want to make the big time on the bluegrass music scene in Nashville, Tennessee: not such a strange bunch, until you realize that these teenagers have come all the way from Russia for their shot at musical fame. A Russian country music band? Yes, that's right, and The Ballad of Bering Strait is a documentary that follows these young musicians from their early entrance into the United States all the way to the beginnings of success.

The Ballad of Bering Strait sets up a premise that seems interesting, even to me, who has little interest in and even less knowledge of the bluegrass/country music scene. The film could have used that premise to explore a number of interesting aspects of the situation, including the nature of the music industry, the process of getting a record contract and succeeding as a band, and the contrasting cultures of Russia and the United States. Unfortunately, what we actually get is a strangely unfocused, uninformative piece that only skims over what it could have delved into.

Director Nina Gilden Seavey followed the Bering Strait band members around for nearly three years while making this film; in that time, she undoubtedly became intimately familiar with the band members' histories and personalities. What she seems to have forgotten in putting the film together, though, is that the film's viewers utterly lack the experiential context to immediately appreciate what's going on: it's the documentary's responsibility to create that context, and it fails in that regard.

Judging from the cover, there are six members of Bering Strait, but we are never clearly introduced to them. Snippets of the film are devoted to various members of the group, but they are not presented in a coherent manner, and some are highlighted more than others. Without knowing their names or anything about them, it becomes difficult to appreciate their progress (or lack of it) as a group; more than a set of characters whom we're interested in, they're a generic "Russian teenagers" group. Midway through the film, this lack of clear presentation of the different players is highlighted when suddenly they start talking about how they had to replace one of the band members because he wasn't working out right. Not only was this not even hinted at earlier (when the band seemed to be one happy family), and the reasons behind it left unexplained, but it's not even clear which one of the group they're talking about. When we finally get a clip with that band member, I didn't even particularly recognize him; the lack of a solid introduction had snowballed to the point that I didn't have any idea who was whom.

The identity of the different people involved with the band is not the only thing that The Ballad of Bering Strait leaves poorly explained. In fact, hardly anything actually is explained at all. The film jumps around from Russia to the United States, and hops back in time at various points to fill in bits of background, and never really establishes a clear narrative line. Some date subtitles are provided, indicating the progression of time, but these offer little useful information in the absence of a coherent structure overall. The most useful guide to the structure of the film is actually the list of chapter titles in the insert: glancing at these titles reveals a structure that's not at all clear in the film itself.

The thread of the film follows the band as it tries to get a record deal in the United States, and touches on the difficulties and challenges the band has in the process, but far too many questions are left unanswered. What prompted the various members of the band to take up bluegrass, hardly a typical Russian choice? What prospects did they have as musicians in Russia? We are told briefly of their musical studies in school, but it's never clear whether this is the equivalent of high school, college, or something in between. Many more unanswered questions pile up as the film proceeds, and unfortunately these are exactly the questions whose answers would have provided interesting substance for the film.

All in all, The Ballad of Bering Strait isn't bad, just unsatisfying. The behind-the-scenes look at the process of getting "discovered" and getting a record contract is at least mildly interesting as presented. Those viewers who are interested in bluegrass music to begin with will probably find the most to like in this film.

The DVD

Video

The Ballad of Bering Strait is presented in a widescreen transfer, at its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1; the back of the DVD case claims that the aspect ratio is 1.33:1, but fortunately this is incorrect. The image is not anamorphically enhanced, though, and this shows up in the lack of sharp detail.

The image is of a satisfactory quality overall, looking nicely clean and free of both noise and print flaws. Some of the footage is distinctly rougher than other parts, simply due to the quality of the source material, which included hand-held video cameras for some "home-movie" footage. Colors also looked good overall, though contrast was a bit iffy at times, with some scenes looking too dark. Edge enhancement rears its ugly head with visible haloing effects. All in all, it's a watchable transfer.

Audio

Two audio tracks are provided for The Ballad of Bering Strait: a Dolby 2.0 and a Dolby 5.1, even though the DVD case only advertises the 5.1. The tracks are fairly similar in sound quality, with the 2.0 mainly seeming to be louder than the 5.1. The soundtrack is clean and clear for the most part, though at times some of the participants mumble. The music sounds good, although it's not really spread out across the different channels as well as it could be.

Extras

A paper insert turns out to be the most informative part of the special features, with a short essay explaining how the director got involved with this project. On the DVD itself, we get two extended scenes, one of "Alexander's campfire song" (from an informal gathering) and the other of "concert footage at Wolf Trap" with the full band. In this sense, the listing of special features on the back of the case is a bit misleading, as it advertises "extended scenes" as well as "exclusive live concert": actually, the "exclusive live concert" is simply one of the two extended scenes.

For miscellaneous extras, there are two trailers for the film, as well as a music video for "Bearing Straight," their Grammy-nominated single. A weblink is also included.

The menus are clear and easy to navigate, and appropriately feature music from the band itself.

Final thoughts

The Ballad of Bering Strait is an ordinary documentary film about an unusual subject; it's not bad, but it is frustrating in a sense because it repeatedly fails to pick up on those areas of the subject that would be the most interesting, and because its loose structure is often confusing. Fans of bluegrass and country music will most likely be interested in this, which I suggest as a rental.