11 December
WHAT’S YOUR STORY?
Excavations via
Armenian Diasporic Cinema
EN Exhibiting a range of short Armenian diasporic films, “What’s Your Story?: Excavations via Armenian Diasporic Cinema” is not your traditional movie-going experience. It invites you to think, reflect, and excavate your socio-cultural spaces of belonging via the presented Armenian diasporic films.
The films deal with explore Armenian roots and the interstitial space that clearly marks diasporas. In doing so, this aspect of in-betweenness is not only manifested through the representation of various Armenian diasporic sociocultural realms of belonging, but also through the cinematic styles and traditions themselves.
The program primarily focuses on shining light onto the vastness and diversity of heterogeneous representations which all belong to the homogenous genus of Armenianness. However, they don’t necessarily represent a complete affirmation of their Armenian identity; they are somewhat critical of a static identity politics and aim to shine new light onto other forms of Armenianness.
The screening will be accompanied by a tailor made audiovisual essay created by the programmer, Shant Bayramian, to add a further layer of socio-cultural introspection for the audience. The films, in conjunction with the presentation of the audiovisual essays, aim to act as a reflective mirror that invite for an inquisitive and explorative perspective on the viewer’s identity. Come and experience the (Armenian) diasporic optic, a phenomenon that shouldn’t be exclusive to diasporas.
Zaterdag 11 december, 15:00
SPECIAL
What’s Your Story? Excavations via Armenian Diasporic Cinema
Paris-Yerevan
Nora Martirosyan | 2016 | FR | 33’
EN If you thought Atom Egoyan pushed the limits of representing the heterogeneity of the Armenian (diasporic) identity through his thought-provoking shot composition, director Nora Martirosyan takes it a step further by composing a unified hybrid space that clearly negotiates Armenianness. Once again, she reminds us that the quest for identity is indeed the journey; the in-between spaces that are indispensable for identity politics.
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The Other Side of Home
Nare Mkrtchyan | 2016 | US | 40’
EN The Other Side of Home attempts to ground the notion that identity is a space where the personal, collective, and political all attempt to coalesce. The documentary film follows Maya, a Turkish national and citizen whose great grandmother is Armenian, on a conflicting journey to the 100th anniversary commemoration of the Armenian Genocide in Yerevan, Armenia. Writer and director Nare Mkrtchyan visually captures identity transformation and a process of becoming by following Maya.
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Girl from Moush
Garine Torossian | 1993 | Canada | 6’
EN A highly lyrical and experimental piece, Garinè Torrossian clearly demonstrates not only the power of film’s indexicality within a diasporic context, but she also exhibits the diasporic haptic through the materiality of analogue film.