Atom Egoyan hopes for a new Armenian wave of filmmakers
BY BEN DALTON
SCREENDAILY
Atom Egoyan has expressed his desire for a new “wave” of Armenian filmmakers and encouraged international projects to consider the region for post-production.
Speaking to Screen following his Qumra masterclass at the Doha incubator, Egoyan – who is Canadian, born in Egypt and of Armenian heritage – described Armenia as “an extraordinarily resilient, stubborn country” with “a rich cinema history”.
“I’m nothing but positive about the ability to make films in Armenia,” said Egoyan, who did acknowledge “political instability” following the Azerbaijani military offensive in the disputed Artsakh region on September 19 and 20 last year, which has been classified as a second Armenian genocide by the inaugural prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.
“There’s a group of filmmakers that emerge at a certain point, and it’s easy to categorise them as a school or a wave,” said Egoyan, who himself was part of the Toronto New Wave of the 1980s and 1990s alongside filmmakers such as Bruce McDonald, Jeremy Podeswa and Patricia Rozema.
“There are always people before that were building towards that, and people that will continue; but it’s always exciting when a number of filmmakers emerge from a particular place.”
“That certainly will happen here [in Qatar], and I’m very hopeful that in Armenia as well,” said Egoyan. “I really would encourage anyone who is in post-production to look at the possibility of doing their soundtrack work in [Armenian capital] Yerevan; I’m sure it would be much more competitive than other countries, and the quality is super-high.”
Egoyan cited Michael A. Goorjian’s Amerikatsi, which became the first Armenian submission to make the best international feature Oscar shortlist this year, as evidence of the “high level” coming from the country. “The country is on the cusp of being able to reveal its talents to the world,” he said, adding that he will attend the 20th anniversary edition of Yerevan’s Golden Apricot International Film Festival this July, where he is honorary chairman.
In his masterclass on March 6, Egoyan called for greater awareness of the situation in Armenia, in relation to other ongoing global conflicts. “Whenever I’m asked to speak to what’s happening [elsewhere], as an Armenian I say, ‘did you know there was an ethnic cleansing of 200,000 Armenians?’ No-one has even heard of this piece of history, which is as dramatic as many other things we’re seeing,” spoke Egoyan.
“There are a lot of narratives happening; part of what we do as storytellers is to make those narratives available to other people, and not to be swayed by prevailing agendas which are suspicious.
Atom Egoyan has expressed his desire for a new “wave” of Armenian filmmakers and encouraged international projects to consider the region for post-production.
Speaking to Screen following his Qumra masterclass at the Doha incubator, Egoyan – who is Canadian, born in Egypt and of Armenian heritage – described Armenia as “an extraordinarily resilient, stubborn country” with “a rich cinema history”.
“I’m nothing but positive about the ability to make films in Armenia,” said Egoyan, who did acknowledge “political instability” following the Azerbaijani military offensive in the disputed Artsakh region on September 19 and 20 last year, which has been classified as a second Armenian genocide by the inaugural prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.
“There’s a group of filmmakers that emerge at a certain point, and it’s easy to categorise them as a school or a wave,” said Egoyan, who himself was part of the Toronto New Wave of the 1980s and 1990s alongside filmmakers such as Bruce McDonald, Jeremy Podeswa and Patricia Rozema.
“There are always people before that were building towards that, and people that will continue; but it’s always exciting when a number of filmmakers emerge from a particular place.”
“That certainly will happen here [in Qatar], and I’m very hopeful that in Armenia as well,” said Egoyan. “I really would encourage anyone who is in post-production to look at the possibility of doing their soundtrack work in [Armenian capital] Yerevan; I’m sure it would be much more competitive than other countries, and the quality is super-high.”
Egoyan cited Michael A. Goorjian’s Amerikatsi, which became the first Armenian submission to make the best international feature Oscar shortlist this year, as evidence of the “high level” coming from the country. “The country is on the cusp of being able to reveal its talents to the world,” he said, adding that he will attend the 20th anniversary edition of Yerevan’s Golden Apricot International Film Festival this July, where he is honorary chairman.
In his masterclass on March 6, Egoyan called for greater awareness of the situation in Armenia, in relation to other ongoing global conflicts. “Whenever I’m asked to speak to what’s happening [elsewhere], as an Armenian I say, ‘did you know there was an ethnic cleansing of 200,000 Armenians?’ No-one has even heard of this piece of history, which is as dramatic as many other things we’re seeing,” spoke Egoyan.
“There are a lot of narratives happening; part of what we do as storytellers is to make those narratives available to other people, and not to be swayed by prevailing agendas which are suspicious.
