Prison Art

Prison Art
Armenia, 1998, 44 min
in Russian

Directors, Scriptwriters, and Producers: Garegin Zakoyan, Gennady Melkonyan
Production Company: “Luys”

Narrated with letters written by renowned filmmaker Sergei Parajanov when he was imprisoned in the 1970s, this documentary depicts the kind of art that is created in places, where the individuality of a human being is destroyed.

Garegin Zakoyan

Born on April 5, 1947, in Yerevan. In 1976, he defended his Ph.D. thesis in Armenian Silent Cinema. From 1973-1985, he worked at the Art Institute of the Armenian National Academy of Sciences as a research associate and as the head of the Film and Television department from 1985-1991. He is the author of around 300 publications, including the books Armenian Silent Cinema (Yerevan, 1976) and Film and Language (Yerevan, 1989). In 1991, he founded the Armenian National Cinematheque. He is the founder of the Apricot Tree International Documentary Film Festival and Filmadaran Film Culture Development NGO. As a director, he has made several documentary films, such as Prison Art (1998), Kajaran: Metamorphosis of Stone (2001), and Mon Reichshoffen (2023).

Gennady Melkonyan

Born on August 12, 1944 in Yerevan. In 1962-1964, he worked in “Hayfilm” studio as a light technician. In 1965, he was admitted to the Acting Faculty of Yerevan Institute of Fine Arts and Theatre, which he graduated in 1969. He worked as a director’s assistant and second director in “Hayfilm” until 1979. He made his directorial debut with the 1979 short The Mulberry Tree. The same year he became a member of USSR Filmmakers Union. Since then, he made about 10 films, which he directed and/or wrote, such as The Last Sunday (1985) and Kite Day (1986). In 1998, together with Garegin Zakoyan he founded the “Luys” film company. Gennady Melkonyan died on May 30, 2002.