Screenings
August 25 21:50
DEBATOUN GUESTHOUSE
Stones
Armenia, 2022, 17’
in Armenian w/Eng.subtitles
Director and Scriptwriter: Arman Ayvazyan
Producer: Vardan Hovhannisyan
Cinematographer: Arman Ayvazyan
Editor: Arman Ayvazyan
Sound: Ruben Ghazaryan
Production Company: Bars Media
The brutal Nagorno-Karabakh War of 2020 ended in a Russian-mediated ceasefire forcing Armenia to cede territory it had controlled to Azerbaijan. As a result, thousands of Armenians living in these regions were forced to leave their homes. Days before the handover deadline, a group of volunteers risks their lives to enter the Lachin region to search for and save beautiful sacred ancient Armenian stone inscriptions known as “khachkars,” from destruction.
Arman Ayvazyan was born in 1994 in Yerevan, Armenia. He graduated from the Armenian Pedagogical Institute in 2016 with a focus on film directing. He later attended the Russian State University of Cinematography named after Sergei Gerasimov (VGIK), where he graduated in 2022 with a specialization in the department of directing non-fiction films. Arman now works as a documentary filmmaker in his native country of Armenia and has seen his work showcased at a number of prestigious film festivals, including but not limited to: the Silver Scad Film Festival (Sevastopol, 2022 Winner: Best Director), the Golden Short Film Festival (Avezzano, 2022), the Prague International Film Awards (Prague), and the Window to Europe Film Festival (St. Petersburg).
Filmography
The Gull (2021), Stones (2022).