In Armenia, a land of breathtaking landscapes, ancient traditions, and a history that stretches back millennia, culture is not just celebrated, it is lived. In “House Culture,” writer and filmmaker Christopher Atamian takes viewers inside the intimate spaces where some of Armenia’s most revered artists and writers once lived, creating a vivid portrait of a nation’s soul through its house museums or doon tankarans.
From the sleek, modern Saryan House Museum in Yerevan’s bustling Kentron district, to the folkloric 19th-century home of the avant-garde Aslamazyan sisters in Gyumri, Armenia’s second-largest city, these museums are more than archives — they are living testaments to creativity, memory, and legacy.
Discussing the project’s outcome, Atamian commented: “It gives me great pleasure to present the lives of renowned Armenian writers and artists to audiences who may never have heard of them before or only know snippets of works memorized in school or elsewhere.”
Although shooting in a foreign country can sometimes be challenging, Atamian credited the CivilNet team for their dedication: “CivilNet made talented people available to me throughout, especially producer and researcher Hasmik Hovhannisyan, and our amazing editor and camera person Ani Balayan. We wrote and shot the five films in about two months — which is quite a clip. But ultimately it is thanks to the team in Yerevan that they turned out so well.”
Across five short films, Atamian explores stories of genius and resilience. The journey begins with three of Armenia’s literary giants: Yeghishe Charents, Paruyr Sevak, and Avetik Isahakyan.
Charents, the country’s literary rebel, lived fast and wrote fiercely, drawing comparisons to Russia’s Mayakovsky. Sevak, born in the humble village of Zangakatun near the Iranian border, rose to national prominence through his unmatched poetic mastery. Isahakyan, inspired by the mysticism of Persian poets Hafez and Rumi, crafted some of Armenia’s most romantic and enduring verses.
