Another Successful Arpa Film Festival Draws to a Close

“Pomegranate Tree” is a short by Hesou Zetelian, about an Armenian family who moves to Los Angeles and struggles to adjust to a new culture while preserving their old one. “Endless Exile” is by Mano Baghjajian, whose storytelling shows the parallel between the Armenian Genocide and the annexation of Artsakh. The French artist Arnaud Serval’s documentary, “La Paradis Est La,” about his art and the honoring of primitive art, uses duduk music. Nairi Bandari documented the life of an art restorer in her film called “Restoring the Past.”

The short films continued with “Miasin – Together” by Armen Ghazarian. The documentary follows the all-female Turkish and Armenian band Miasin on their trip to Turkey. They visit several ancient Armenian cities and connect with local musicians, give concerts at the Armenian church of Diyarbakir and meet Kurdish and Hamshen people. The Armenian musician from Miasin, Sevana Tchakerian, appears in the feature film “A Winter’s Song,” which was screened Saturday evening.

“Whatever Dreams They Had” is a documentary by Stephanie Ayanian and Joseph Myers. The film follows Armenag Bedrossian, an Armenian Catholic priest, as he devotes himself to helping Syrian refugees. Ayanian wants to show the importance of helping refugees and becoming aware of our own biases.

A noteworthy movie is “The Reverse Side of the Medal,” made in Armenia by Anna Harutunyan (her professional name is Anna Maxim), who is the actress, writer, director and producer of this feature film based on the life of weightlifter Nazik Avdalyan. Avdalyan was a professional weightlifter from Gyumri who won a gold medal for Armenia. She suffered back injuries due to a car accident and took a break for seven years. But through perseverance, she continued her passion for sports and won a gold medal at the 2016 European Weightlifting Championships. During the Q&A, Maxim said, “This is a movie about a woman who overcomes many challenges, but I made the film to empower everybody, not just women.”

Maxim trained for 3 years to be in shape for this challenging role. On Sunday, she received two awards: Rising Star and Best Feature Film.

On the third day, several short films from Armenia, South Korea and Mexico were screened. The black-and-white film “The Circus Lion” is by director/actor Tigran Tovmasian from Australia. Its message is about struggling to leave a desperate situation; it won the award on Sunday evening. Another short and meaningful film was “9 1 6,” written and directed by Hrachya Zakaryan in Armenia. The universal theme was how people isolate themselves, put themselves in “prison” without realizing they have other options. The film won the Best Short. There was a tie, and both “9 1 6” and “The Circus Lion” received the awards.