The 15th annual Arpa International Film Festival opens on Thursday November 29 and runs through December 2, 2012 at The Egyptian Theatre in Los Angeles, California showcasing over 60 feature films, documentaries and short films from 17 countries.
This year’s N. American bows include Tobias Tobbell’s (The Drummond Will) British thriller CONFINE starring Alfie Allen (Game of Thrones) and supermodel Daisy Lowe in her feature debut . Also showing for the first time in N.America is Aram Sukiasyan’s rock opera WANDERING. ‘Wandering’ is the first such film made in Armenia.
West Coast feature premieres include Nicolas Tackian’s French drama AZAD and Ajay Singh’s endearing family film UPSIDE DOWN (Khalti Doka Varti Paay). The latter film from India was an official selection of the 2012 Cannes Film Festival’s World Cinema section.
These films join the North American premiers of the opening night film Gor Kirakosian’s comedy LOST & FOUND IN ARMENIA (USA), Centerpiece Program Sebastian Siegel’s documentary AWAKENING WORLD (USA), the taboo breaking ZENNE DANCER (TURKEY) and Closing Night Film Armenia’s Official Submission to the Foreign Language Category at the 85th Academy Awards® Natalya Belyauskene’s powerful drama IF ONLY EVERYONE (Armenia) . The Festival will also host acclaimed filmmaker Tsvetana Paskaleva’s revival screening of WOUNDS OF KARABAKH (1994) and Hrach Keshishyan’s special sneak peak of his forthcoming 2013 historical epic feature film, NJDEH. Both filmmakers will be in attendance at Arpa International Film Festival.
15th Annual Arpa International Film Festival Program
OPENING NIGHT GALA Thursday, November 29, 7:30 PM
LOST & FOUND IN ARMENIA (2012)
Country: Armenia, USA
Director: Gor Kirakosian
Writer: Narek Ghaplanyan, Gor Kirakosian, Krist Manaryan
Producer: Maral Djerejian, Valerie McCaffrey
Duration 1:40:00
Language: English
US PREMIERE/Opening Night Film
Lost & Found in Armenia is the story of Bill (Jamie Kennedy), an American tourist who travels to Turkey to get his mind off a bad break up. In a comedic and dangerous turn of events, Bill unknowingly ends up in a small village in Armenia, where he is accused of being a Turkish spy. It is in that small village that he meets a beautiful Armenian girl (Angela Sarafyan), who helps him escape from misfortune.
CENTERPIECE PROGRAM – FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 7:30 PM
AWAKENING WORLD (2012)
Country: USA
Director: Sebastian Siegel
Writer: Sebastian Siegel
Producer: Sebastian Siegel
Duration: 0:40:00
Language: English
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE/Centerpiece Program
What fuels an AWAKENING WORLD? That’s what filmmaker Sebastian Siegel sets out to uncover through interviews with renowned authors, and globally recognized artists and leaders. This 1st installment of the 7 year documentary project, LOVE SEX GOD, explores fundamental questions at the core of human fulfillment, such as “what is love?” and “what is the purpose of life?”. Influences on the filmmaker from growing up in Hawaii to immersion in the arts and Indian mythology drive the exploration. Scored discussions are woven into a dialogue culminating in the advocation of a specific methodology as an essential means necessary to perpetuate widespread human joy… . and in the payoff the film drives compassion, and inspires.
ZENNE DANCER (2011)
Country: Turkey
Director: Caner Alper
Writer: Caner Alper, Mehmet Binay
Producer: Caner Alper, Mehmet Binay
Duration: 1:33:00
Language: Turkish with English subtitles
LOS ANGELES PREMIERE/Centerpiece Program
Zenne is the contemporary story of three unlikely friends: Ahmet, a masculine gay man, Can, a male belly dancer (Zenne), and Daniel, a German photo-journalist, who are confronted by a systemic, institutionalized and culturally embedded homophobia that leads to tragedy.
CLOSING NIGHT GALA Saturday, December 1, 2012
IF ONLY EVERYONE (2012)
Country: Armenia
Director: Natalya Belyauskene
Writer: Theresa Varzhapetyan, Michael Poghosian
Producer: Theresa Varzhapetyan
Duration: 1:35:00
Language: Armenian, Russian with English subtitles
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE/Closing Night Film
Armenia’s Official Submission to the Foreign Language Category at the 85th Academy Awards®
This story perhaps touches on the most sensitive string for our nation today, Artsakh. Why did people die, what was the war about, what motivated the heroic deeds? Some have found the answers, others are still searching. But these questions eclipse real lives of real people, whom we often think about the least, unfortunately. Whereas they are living right next to us and maybe are asking the same questions…Our protagonist Gurgen is a common guy, an electronics wiz in a body shop, ostensibly enjoying everybody’s respect and, perhaps, awe. His gloomy appearance may be the reason, or is it his combat merit in the battle for Artsakh? A young Russian girl calls on him, the daughter of his fallen brother in arms…
FEATURE FILMS
AS A BEGINNING (2006)
Country: Armenia
Director: Art Sevada
Writer: Art Sevada
Producer: Art Sevada
Duration: 0:51:45
Language: Armenian with English subtitles
Just behind the slick surface textures of the new Yerevan, beyond its refashioned vistas, mind boutiques, and cooler than thou cafes and restaurants, there is the beating heart of a dreamscape. This is the city’s mythic backdrop, an ongoing essay contest where memory and prospect meet or don’t. Art was at home here. The juxtaposition was inescapable. There was, in the foreground, the stage of the here and now: an Armenian social struggle for stability, an East-meets-West brand of politics and governance, the frazzle-dazzle of an entrepreneurial spirit that was busy expanding the gulf between the haves and have-nots, plus the potential of eye-popping creativity…
AZAD (2009)
Country: France, Armenia
Director: Nicolas Tackian
Writer: Nicolas Tackian
Producer: David Kodsi
Duration: 1:10:00
Language: French with English subtitles
WEST COAST PREMIERE
The word ‘Azad’ means freedom in both Armenian and Kurdish—the core theme in this dramatic feature. An Armenian artist, Mayak is determined to tell his grandfather’s story of survival from the Armenian Genocide through the medium of a graphic novel. Mayak is forced to confront his beliefs and deeply-rooted anger when he meets Mina, a young Kurdish woman who moves into the house he shares with friends. Through their turbulent relationship, both individuals discover profound revelations about their worldviews. A gripping film about one’s identity and self-perseverance.
CONFINE (2012)
Country: United Kingdom
Director: Tobias Tobbell
Writer: Tobias Tobbell
Producer: Emily Corcoran
Duration: 1:30:45
Language: English, Spanish, and French with English subtitles
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
She hid from the world for years. All she wants now is to escape.
CROSSROAD (2012)
Country: USA
Director: Shervin Youssefian
Writer: Shervin Youssefian
Producer: Shervin Youssefian, Danny Simonzad, David Dginguerian, Amy Weber
Duration: 1:35:00
Language: English
Fueled by revenge, Michael sets up a meeting with Clef Robie, the man who murdered his wife and child six years ago. His plans of killing him come to a standstill when unexpected events turn everything he has known upside down. Follow Michael as he slowly discovers that everything in life happens for a reason.
DISAPPEARING BAKERSFIELD (2012)
Country: USA
Director: Sophiah Koikas
Writer: Sophiah Koikas
Producer: Sophiah Koikas
Duration: 2:30:00
Language: English
WORLD PREMIERE
Darris Blue decides to move back home to love and live with her dad but ends up in Disappearing Bakersfield. Disappearing is a vortex and once inside, she’s unable to get out. The call of a ghost and a mystery hostage in the attic of the only hotel in town, The Lonesome Road Hotel, Darris just might be able to help the ghost find her peace which opens Darris’ own heart of her own genocide to her own trapped emotions of her past.
UPSIDE DOWN (2012)
Country: India
Director: Ajay Singh
Writer: Ajay Singh
Producer: Junaid Memon
Duration:1:19:30
Language: Marathi with English subtitles
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
Upside Down is the film which will make you forget Majid Majidi’s award winning “Children Of Heaven.”
WANDERING (2011)
Country: Armenia
Director: Arshaluys Harutyunyan
Writer: Aram Sukiasyan
Producer: Aram Sukiasyan
Duration: 1:21:00
Language: Armenian with English subtitles
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
‘Wandering’ depicts the curious tragedy of a historical injustice victim, a man living in Diaspora. Christianity, immortality of soul, human sins and trespasses, historical injustices, love and purification – these topics are the ideological basis of the film. ‘Wandering’ belongs to the farcical and tragicomic genre and is exceptional in its style. ‘Wandering’ has a structure typical of classical opera: an overture, duets, trios, arias and choral performances with clear development and ideology. ‘Wandering’ is the first such film made in the region’
DOCUMENTARIES
AMERICAN IMAM (2012)
Country: USA
Director: Donya Ravasani
Producer: Donya Ravasani
Duration: 0:19:50
Language: English
Imam Siraj Wahhaj is one of the most prominent and controversial Islamic clerics of the United States. He leads a Muslim community in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. His daughter Hujrah Wahhaj works along side him, reaching out to the Facebook generation in search of its soul. The Imam’s longtime companion Ali Abdul Karim has helped him lead the Islamic community where they settled in the 1980s when the neighborhood was Brooklyn’s roughest ghetto. This is a look behind the scenes of the African-American Muslim community in the United States today.
ARAGIL, THE WHITE STORK (2010)
Country: Armenia
Director: Shirak Khojayan
Writer: Shirak Khojayan
Producer: Shirak Khojayan
Duration: 0:28:26
Language: English
Aragil, The White Stork is a documentary about the life of the white stork and its relationship with the people of Armenia.
ARMENIAN ACTIVISTS NOW! BIRTH OF A MOVEMENT (2012)
Country: USA, Armenia
Director: Robert Davidian
Producer: Robert Davidian
Duration: 0:41:00
Language: English
This documentary shows the birth of activism and the social issues it aims to change in Armenia, as told by the activists themselves.
ARMENIAN ECHOES (2012)
Country: Canada, Armenia
Director: Hagop Goudsouzian
Producer: Hagop Goudsouzian
Duration: 1:48:18
Language: Armenian with English subtitles
Armenian Echoes, timeless rhythms. So much of a peoples’ identity stems from the songs they sing, the music they play and the spirit of their dance. Music is the very essence of the cultural identity of a people. In this film Hagop Goudsouzian continues his 7-month journey through Armenia in pursuit of his dream, the soul of Armenian Music.
ARMENIAN MINSTRELS (2011)
Country: Canada, Armenia
Director: Hagop Goudsouzian
Producer: Hagop Goudsouzian
Duration: 0:55:23
Language: Armenian with English Subtitles
Today’s Armenian Minstrels perform traditional yet contemporary Armenian love songs. With a 700 year history Armenian Minstrels still echo the soul of Armenian Culture. Featuring Professor Tovmas Poghosyan, the Sayat-Nova Minstrel Song Ensemble and impromptu interviews and performances with well known Armenian Minstrels: Minstrel Andranik Ujanci, Minstrel Astghanush, Minstrel Kochar, and Minstrel Makhmour.
ARMENIAN RHAPSODY (2012)
Country: Brazil
Director: Cassiana Der Haroutiounian, Cesar Gananian, Gary Gananian
Writer: Cassiana Der Haroutiounian, Cesar Gananian, Gary Gananian
Producer: Cassiana Der Haroutiounian, Cesar Gananian, Gary Gananian
Duration: 1:02:28
Language: English, Armenian, and Spanish with English subtitles
Armenian Rhapsody is a road movie, made of a polyphony of characters where the faces and the music are the real protagonists. As in a rhapsody, the film is made of a juxtaposition of musical and narrative fragments with variations in theme, intensity and tone.
BORN IN GOMA (2012)
Country: USA, Congo
Director: Chris Carpenter
Producer: Chris Carpenter
Duration: 0:47:45
Language: English and Swahili with English subtitles
Dr. Chris Carpenter travels to Goma, a war-ravaged city in the Democratic Republic of Congo, to work at the HEAL Africa hospital. Each day, he cares for the sickest and most desperate children in the region. During his journey, he meets three special patients, each trying to survive in the midst of extreme poverty and violence. Born in Goma follows Isaac, Gisele and Dieume as they work against remarkable odds to regain their health and build brighter futures.
DONKEYMENTARY (2012)
Country: Kenya, Armenia
Director: Arman Yeritsyan, Vardan Hovhannisyan
Producer: Vardan Hovhannisyan
Duration: 0:52:00
Language: English and Swahili with English subtitles
This is a Donkeymentary – a documentary about a small island, just off the coast of Kenya, with 24,000 people, 6,000 donkeys, just 2 cars and a 14-year-old donkey race champion, Shee Famao, whose fondest dream in life is nothing more than having a donkey of his own.
FATHER’S LAND (2012)
Country: Armenia
Director: Anzhela Frangyan & Marianna Abrahamyan
Writer: Anzhela Frangyan & David Sargsyan
Producer: Tiran Hayrapetyan
Duration: 0:18:00
Language: Armenian with English subtitles
Father’s Land tells the story of the grand 9th century Monastery of Tatev.
GENOCIDE MEMOIR (2012)
Country: Australia
Director: Shahane Bekarian
Producer: Shahane Bekarian
Duration: 0:13:58
Language: Armenian with English subtitles
Boghos Tavrayan was about 4 years old, he didn’t know who his parents were, he didn’t know the year of his birth, he didn’t know why they were abhorred, the only thing he knew was his first name. This Genocide Memoir is a short documentary about a survivor of the Armenian Genocide during WWI. Using an interview filmed in 1986 this film is a contemporary view which attempts to convey the ongoing suffering and struggle for justice within Armenians today.
HAMSHEN AT CROSSROADS OF PAST AND PRESENT (2012)
Country: Armenia, Turkey
Director: Lusine Sahakyan
Producer: Lusine Sahakyan
Duration: 1:00:00
Language: Armenian, Hamshen, and Turkish with English subtitles
Lusineh Sahakyan’s documentary Hamshen at Crossroads of Past and Present is dedicated to the current state of the descendants of the Armenians of Hamshen (Hamshentsis); a people who were forcibly Islamicized (”Turkified”) by the Ottoman Empire in the 18th century. Today, they live primarily in the provinces of Rizeh and Artvin, as well as in Istanbul and other cities of Turkey. The film presents unique episodes from the history and culture of the once powerful Armenian Principality of Hamshen, and the practice of Islamization, a form of ethnic cleansing. Based on material shot on location, the present-day culture of the Hamshentsis is chronicled: their songs and dances, customs, linguistic situation, as well as their everyday life and occupations, conceptions of their own identity, and the demographic picture.
HUMBLE THE POET (2011)
Country: USA, Canada
Director: Brendan Nahmias
Producer: Brendan Nahmias
Duration: 0:12:28
Language: English
With tattoos and a turban, Humble the Poet is a Sikh hip-hop artist from Toronto, Canada whose message is expressed with a twist. He harnesses the power of the spoken word with music, re-defining the immigrant experience in a bold fashion. Take a ride inside the mind of Humble as he navigates the line between two cultures, aiming to define himself as a hip-hop artist, while reconciling his identity as a modern Sikh.
MEMORIES WITHOUT BORDERS (2012)
Country: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkey
Director: Mehmet Binay, Levon Kalantar, Ayaz Salayev
Producer: M. Caner Alper, Harutyun Mansuryan, Nailia Babayeva
Duration: 0:54:22
Language: Armenian, Azerbaijani, and Turkish with English subtitles
In 2010, a UK-based peacebuilding organization, Conciliation Resources, brought a team of Armenian, Azerbaijani and Turkish directors together to make a film exploring parallels and differences in how Turks, Armenians and Azerbaijanis remember the past and see their future. The result is a subtly provocative meditation on collective memory, personal discovery and borders in the mind, across a region as divided by historical narratives as it is by closed borders and frontlines.
MY MOTHER’S VOICE (2012)
Country: USA
Director: Mark Friedman
Writer: Kay Mouradian
Producer: Mark Friedman, Kay Mouradian
Duration: 0:25:04
Language: English
My Mother’s Voice is the compelling story of fourteen-year-old Flora Munushian, her survival from the 1915 Armenian Genocide and how she finds her way to America to marry a man she knows only from a paragraph. Her voice is the voice of all the victims of the 1915 genocide, a story that must not be forgotten.
RETURN TO ASBURY (2012)
Country: USA
Director: David Norian
Writer: David Norian
Producer: Dot Gain Films
Duration: 0:10:00
Language: English
Return to Asbury tells the story of how Armenian-Americans once gathered every summer in the New Jersey beach town of Asbury Park, and what happens when they return to that same place 40 years later.
SO FAR FROM HOME (2009)
Country: Canada
Director: Lorne Shirinian
Writer: Lorne Shirinian
Producer: Lorne Shirinian
Duration: 0:5:43
Language: English
A narrative documentary of the journey from Turkey to Canada of a 5-year old orphan survivor of the Armenian Genocide.
THE SUFFERING GRASSES: WHEN ELEPHANTS FIGHT, IT IS THE GRASS THAT
SUFFERS (2012)
Country: USA, Syria, Arab Republic, Turkey
Director: Iara Lee
Producer: Iara Lee
Duration: 0:51:45
Language: English and Arabic with English subtitles
With thousands dead and counting, the ongoing conflict in Syria has become a microcosm for the complicated politics of the region, and an unsavory reflection of the world at large. Against the backdrop of the Arab Spring and the complicated politics of the region, this film explores the Syrian conflict through the humanity of the civilians who have been killed, abused, and displaced. In all such conflicts, it is civilians, women and children, families and whole communities, who suffer at the leisure of those in power. When elephants go to war, it is the grass that suffers.
TONI AND ROSI (2012)
Country: USA, UK, Austria
Director: Todd Murray, Will Wyatt
Producer: Todd Murray, Will Wyatt
Duration: 0:58:00
Language: English
Toni and Rosi Grunschlag were Viennese piano prodigies destined for triumph on the concert stages of Europe until the Nazi occupation of Austria shattered their world and irrevocably changed their destiny. Left to fend for themselves in a hostile Austria, they were forced to flee their native land and begin new lives far away from all that they loved. ‘Toni and Rosi’ turned to what they could trust: their music and each other.
TUMOR, IT’S IN THE SYSTEM (2012)
Country: USA, Australia, Canada
Director: Cindy Pruitt, Valerie McCaffrey
Producer: Valerie McCaffrey, Cindy Pruitt
Duration: 1:07:00
Language: English
This documentary reveals how alternative cures for cancer have been suppressed since the 1930’s and how the bureaucratic regulatory system has maintained chemotherapy and radiation as the only choice of treatment for over 100 years. Citing testimonials to the horrors of chemo and radiation adjacent to those who have secretly cured their cancer with alternative means, this film is a call to action for the freedom to publicize alternative cures, and a call to people to demand the freedom to make better choices.
VIOLINS IN WARTIME (2011)
Country: Israel
Director: Yael Katzir
Writer: Yael Katzir
Producer: Yael Katzir, Dan Katzir
Duration: 0:46:04
Language: English and Hebrew with English subtitles
Israel 2006. An intimate chronicle of the violinmaker Amnon Weinstein whose son is at the front during the Second Lebanon War. Amnon takes part in master classes for young violinists taught by famed musicians Ida Haendel and Shlomo Mintz. A moving story about the power of music and the violins in wartime.
VOYAGE TO AMASIA (2011)
Country: USA, Armenia, Turkey
Director: Randy Bell
Producer: Randy Bell, Eric Hachikian
Duration: 1:24:15
Language: English, Armenian, and Turkish with English subtitles
Voyage To Amasia’ is a feature documentary inspired by Eric Hachikian’s piano trio of the same name. Amasya, Turkey is the city from which Eric’s grandmother fled during the Armenian Genocide. The filmmakers made a real voyage to Amasia, tracing a path through the past, telling Eric’s family’s story and the story of the current people of Turkey and Armenia.
WOMEN AT WAR: FORGOTTEN VETERANS OF DESERT STORM (2012)
Country: USA
Director: Christie Davis
Writer: Christie Davis
Producer: Christie Davis, Dennis Davis
Duration: 1:16:16
Language: English
The feature documentary ‘Women At War: Forgotten Veterans of Desert Storm’ takes an intimate look at women soldiers’ wartime experiences on the toxic battlefields of 1991’s Operation Desert Storm and their heartbreaking battles with Gulf War Illnesses since they’re returned home. Carol Williams and three other female veterans fight the government for proper treatment and benefits in their search for answers to their mysterious Gulf War illnesses. They wonder why they’ve been abandoned by the government they risked their lives to serve. Twenty years later, their war isn’t over.
SHORT FILMS
140 DRAMS (2012)
Country: Armenia
Director: Oksana Mirzoyan
Writer: Oksana Mirzoyan
Producer: Emily Mkrtichian, Anahid Yahjian
Duration: 0:18:00
Language: Armenian with English subtitles
140 Drams tells the story of a young boy who must go to the store by himself for the first time. Things get complicated when the 140 Drams his mother gave him for milk are not enough, and he has to make a difficult choice. The experience of this young boy becomes a kaleidoscope through which the landscape of a modern Armenia emerges. Through bits and pieces, fragments of conversation and glimpses of the insides of a single bedroom apartment, this film tries to put together a picture of this country, right now.
4 MINUTES (2011)
Country: USA
Director: Stephen Sepher
Writer: Stephen Sepher
Producer: Stephen Sepher
Duration: 0:15:30
Language: English
Four ex special ops are en route to transport a well-known heart surgeon when they find themselves targeted by an unknown enemy in the mountainous terrains of Kandahar, Afghanistan.
AFTER WATER THERE IS SAND (2012)
Country: USA, Armenia
Director: Saro Varjabedian
Writer: Saro Varjabedian
Producer: Mira El Koussa
Duration: 0:17:45
Language: English and Armenian with English subtitles
Tamar, an 80-year-old widow, visits her Armenian homeland to fulfill her recently-deceased husband’s last wish: to take a family photo in front of Mount Ararat. However, her daughters, Armine and Lori, are less than interested in going to mount Ararat, and hope that the trip will allow Tamar to let go of her grief and find joy in her life. The three women are accompanied by Hripsime, a loud-mouthed, sprightly taxi driver as their guide. With the Armenian countryside as their backdrop, the women struggle to find new meaning in their lives and broaden their relationships. Once they arrive at Ararat, they are surprised to learn that the picture Tamar wants to take won’t come as easily to them as they had hoped…
299: BARBARIANS INSIDE THE GATES (2012)
Country: USA
Director: Frederikos
Writer: Nick Mann
Producer: Nick Mann
Duration: 0:15:00
Language: English
In a world, where ancient mythology collides with present day discord, a rogue warrior who would be king, finds himself in the throes of an existential crisis. But it is not until he summons the spirit of 299 Spartans to help charge a hapless band of Greeks into a battle of economic proportions to reclaim the country’s sovereignty, does our anti-hero realize he is but a mere pawn in a larger, divine plan. Cast includes Arkidies Vasileas, Phillip Berg, Vasilia Niles, and introducing Pheenix. Art by Jamese
THE EPIPHANY (2012)
Country: USA
Director: Ella Hatamian
Writer: Ella Hatamian
Duration: 0:17:42
Language: English and Armenian with English subtitles
It’s January 5th, Armenian Christmas Eve, and the Hatamian family only has 15-minutes to complete their preparations for the annual holiday feast. Chaos ensues.
HIGH CARD TRUMPS (2012)
Country: USA
Director: Geoffrey Quan
Writer: Stacey Parshall Jensen
Producer: Frances Chang
Duration: 0:05:56
Language: English
Lois, a headstrong woman and soon-to-be champion grandmother, is anxious to share her good news with the volunteers of her monthly Support-Our-Troops bake sale. But when an Arab mother joins them, Lois’s pride and her definition of patriotism are challenged.
HOLLYWOOD & HAMMER (2012)
Country: USA
Director: Ryan Green
Writer: Ryan Green, Nathaniel Eyde (story)
Producer: Nathaniel Eyde
Duration: 0:11:55
Language: English
A man dressed as THOR wanders Hollywood Blvd, looking for tips. He becomes the subject of scorn and ridicule when he claims to be the actual Norse God of Thunder. The problem is, it might just be true.
HYEPOWER (2011)
Country: USA
Director: James Jay Ellis
Duration: 0:08:15
Language: English and German with English subtitles
Based on the original music video HiiiPower by Kendrick Lamar, Nazo Bravo leads the audience through personal perspectives of his own cultural heritage – and that of millions of first and second generation Armenians now living in America – with his vibrantly personal debut music video HyePower.’Hye’ is Armenian for its own rich identity. And the word ‘Power’ is a hopeful reference to the dreams of many of Nazo’s own friends and others throughout the world for a better life ahead. Rooted in the tragedy of what is commonly called The Armenian Genocide and the recent murder of Armenian journalist Hrant Dink in Istanbul, Turkey, the video also traces resonant social luminaries such as John Lennon and Muhammad Ali.
JOLLY B. FIERCE (2012)
Country: USA
Director: Allison Arachea
Writer: Allison Arachea
Producer: Angelica Robinson
Duration: 0:22:00
Language: English and Tagalog with English subtitles
Filipino drag queen, Jolly B. Fierce, leaves the glitter, lights and wigs to travel to America; where he will be faced with the decision to reconcile with his estranged family, for the sake of his dying mother.
JUST LIKE HER (2011)
Country: USA
Director: Eddie Melikyan
Writer: Eddie Melikyan
Producer: Avi Quijada
Duration: 0:18:18
Language: English
Just Like Her embarks us on the emotional journey of Ashley Marston as she prepares a Thanksgiving dinner for her family. Unable to suppress the urge to speak about the taboo, it quickly becomes violent when she blames her father for her mother’s suicide.
LATER THAN USUAL (2012)
Country: Canada
Director: David Hovan
Writer: David Hovan
Producer: David Hovan
Duration 0:06:15
A day in the life of an elderly couple. The non verbal interactions between the two make for sometimes funny and at other times poignant moments throughout the film. This couple has lived so long together that they have nothing left to say to each other. Living in an isolated state in their old house, they go about their daily routines, until…
MACHINEHEAD (2012)
Country: USA
Director: Micah Gallagher
Writer: Micah Gallagher
Producer: Micah Gallagher
Duration: 0:12:00
Machinehead is a stop-motion short film that follows a puppet as he travels through four unique rooms representing different stages of intellectual and spiritual development. It’s an abstract representation of someone trying to find meaning and purpose. The short features puppet animation and pays homage to revolutionary stop-motion artists such as Jan Svankmajer and the Quay Brothers in style and content.
MAKE IT A GREAT DAY (2012)
Country: USA
Director: Joshua Jones
Writer: Daniel Klein
Producer: Joshua Jones, Daniel Klein
Duration: 0:06:40
Language: English
Mother Nature’s peculiar sense of irony creates a convoluted path of survival for a newborn chick with unfortunate timing.
METZARENTS (2012)
Country: USA
Director: Hayk Hambartsum
Writer: Hayk Hambartsum
Producer: Shahe Barsoumian
Duration: 0:35:00
Language: English and Armenian with English subtitles
Metzarents is the story of Vahag, a struggling actor in Los Angeles who reconnects with his long dormant Armenian roots when he is offered to play the role of the poet Misak Metzarents in a play.
MIDNIGHT FISTFIGHT (2012)
Country: USA
Director: Robert Nazar Arjoyan
Writer: Robert Nazar Arjoyan, David Lafian
Producer: Robert Nazar Arjoyan
Duration: 0:23:34
Language: English and Armenian with English subtitles
Rage-filled Gev, a first generation American, must learn to get along with his sister’s straightlaced boyfriend Alec, whom he accompanies to a ‘zhamo,’ a ritualistic and centuries-old Armenian tradition, where men meet to settle grievances of honor but rarely leave unscathed.
MOSSADEGH (2011)
Country: USA
Director: Roozbeh Dadvand
Writer: Roozbeh Dadvand, Nathaniel C. Leonard
Producer: Amber Beard, Marina Davis, Grace K. Lee
Duration: 0:23:33
Language: English and Farsi with English subtitles
Iran. 1959. It is six years after the CIA orchestrated coup that overthrew democratic Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh from power. Now living under house arrest and suffering from a life-threatening condition, Mossadegh must decide whether or not to trust a brilliant American physician that is sent to treat him.
MOVING STORIES (2012)
Country: France, USA
Director: Nora Armani
Writer: Nora Armani
Producer: Nora Armani
Duration: 0:18:16
Language: English
The story of two women linked by an apartment from which one is moving out the other in. For the first one this is a definitive move and the closing of a chapter, while for the second it is just a stage, and the start of a new life.
PARALLAX (2012)
Country: USA
Director: Paul DeNigris
Writer: Paul DeNigris
Producer: Paul DeNigris, Steve Briscoe, Laura DeNigris
Duration: 0:22:00
Language: English and Arabic with English subtitles
Daniels, a U.S. Army infantryman with a hatred for all Arabs, is injured in a convoy ambush and rescued by Iraqi civilian Hassan and his son Jabir. As the three of them hide from the insurgents, Daniels learns that his prejudices and his hatred have been misplaced and comes to respect Hassan and Jabir as human beings. Making a sacrifice himself in order to save his new friends from the insurgents, Daniels emerges from the experience with a renewed perspective.
PAYING FOR IT (2011)
Country: USA
Director: Lauren Lillie
Writer: Lauren Lillie
Producer: Narineh Hacopian
Duration: 0:21:43
Language: English
While on a weekend getaway with her boyfriend, 18-year-old Deidre discovers a call girl passed out in their hotel hallway. She decides to help her. During their ensuing hours together, Deidre opens up to this woman in a way that she isn’t capable of confiding in anyone else. What is it that these two women learn they have in common?
PRIVATE SUN (2011)
Country: Palestinian Territories
Director: Rami Alayan
Writer: Rami Alayan
Producer: Rami Alayan, Muayad Alayan
Duration: 0:25:00
Language: Arabic with English subtitles
Mariam is instructed by her doctor to sunbathe in order to reverse the vitamin D deficiency that is causing her a bone illness. But with nosy neighbors, an overbearing sister-in-law and Israeli surveillance planes, private moments under the sun are precious and rare.
QUITTER (2012)
Country: USA
Director: Garen Mirzaian
Writer: Garen Mirzaian
Producer: Tomohisa Imagawa
Duration: 0:16:26
Language: English
A young man is inspired to make a healthy change in his life only to realize the source of his inspiration is slowly turning into his nemesis.
SECRET OF LIGHT (2012)
Country: USA
Director: Vahram Hakobyan
Writer: Vahram Hakobyan
Producer: Vahram Hakobyan, Autumn Fawn
Duration: 0:13:13
Language: English
Princess of Light returns to her father’s kingdom to face Dark Devil and restore light in Valley of Hope.
THREE COLORS IN BLACK AND WHITE (2008)
Country: Armenia
Director: Art Sevada
Writer: Harutyun Kbeyan
Producer: Armen Hambardzumyan
Duration: 0:14:03
Language: Russian and Armenian with English subtitles
A mentally ill young man sees everything that is happening in Yerevan with a bit of an exaggerated eye.
TOUJOURS (2011)
Country: USA
Director: Sona Tatoyan
Writer: Sona Tatoyan
Producer: Ted Feldman, Andrei Bowden-Schwartz, Sona Tatoyan
Duration: 0:8:28
Language: English and French with English subtitles
A woman reignites an old unconsummated love affair with fatal consequences.
VAI, KIKOS, VAI… (2009)
Country: Armenia
Director: Aviva Barkhoudarian
Writer: Aviva Barkhoudarian
Producer: Aviva Barkhoudarian
Duration: 0:07:00
Language: Armenian with English subtitles
The story of Kikos’ death, inspired by the classic Hovhannes Tumanyan story.
VENA AMORIS (2012)
Country: USA
Director: Armando Hermosilla
Writer: Armando Hermosilla
Producer: Sergio Arroyo, Akbar Farooq
Duration: 0:15:38
Language: English
Vena Amoris is about celebrating life with hope in our hearts and an eye toward the future. This film depicts how easy it is to live a happy life when we’re surrounded by friends and family who love us and how easy it is to stray when left alone. James (Christopher Newell) is a successful and attractive businessman who will be married tomorrow, but before he is married he has to goose step his way past a beautiful temptress and endure painful torture at the hands of his fiancé’s father (Allan Charof). Will James’ love be strong enough to get him through the gauntlet to his wedding day, or will he be swayed by the promise of pleasure and impending pain that threaten to crush his dream of being a good and faithful husband?
VENUS VS. MARS (2011)
Country: USA
Director: Talin Malekian
Writer: Talin Malekian
Producer: Talin Malekian, Nansia Movidi, Jeffrey DeChausse
Duration: 0:15:22
Language: English
In a world bound by deception, how will a young impressionable artist overcome society’s lure of grandeur in order to unite with her inner voice and become highly valued?
VUCCIRIA (2011)
Country: Italy
Director: Michele Di Salle
Writer: Michele Di Salle
Producer: Massimo Sigillo Massara
Duration: 0:07:20
Language: Italian with English subtitles
Under a cloudy sky a young lady walks around the streets of the town. Outside a shop she sees herself in a mirror. Her reflection is much colorful. Curiosity draws Elisa closer to the mirror and with one touch she is in a new world. The lady is now in a new world, a market full of strange characters…