2009

~ MFA Boston Armenian Film Festival ~

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Avenue of the Arts
465 Huntington Avenue
Boston, Massachusetts 02115

May 1, Friday, 7 pm
Opening Night Film & Reception $25.00 ($20 ticket for members, seniors, and students)

THE BLUE HOUR by Eric Nazarian
Followed by Q&A and Reception

May 2, Saturday, 5 pm
$12.00 ($10 ticket for members, seniors, and students)

We Drank the Same Water (Nous avons bu le même eau) by Serge Avedikian preceded by Lux Aeterna and Terra Emota by Serge Avedikian and Levon Minasian

We Drank the Same Water (Nous avons bu le même eau) (France, 2007, 72 min.). When Serge Avédikian was invited to a theater festival in Istanbul in 1987, he could not resist crossing the Sea of Marmara to go and seek the town his Armenian grandfather lived in. The day he spent in this town left him with haunting memories. Incomplete, half-stolen images remained, revealing the furtive traces of an Armenian community forced to leave in the 1920s. Most of the film centers on Avédikian’s return to Soloz in 2006 and attempts to restore the dialogue between Armenians and Turks and enable people to turn their minds to the future without forgetting their past. In French with English subtitles. Lux Aeterna by Serge Avédikian and Levon Minasian (1998, 11 min.). On December 7, 1988, a terrible earthquake ravaged an entire region of Armenia, including its second-largest city, Leninakan. Several hours after the seismic shock, the directors began to film the devastation. Terra Emota by Serge Avédikian and Levon Minasian (1999, 10 min.). Ten years after the terrible earthquake that destroyed the city of Leninakan, the directors returned to the scene to record the city and its inhabitants.

May 2, Saturday, 8 pm
$12.00 ($10 ticket for members, seniors, and students)

The Mermaid (Rusalka) preceded by Ligne de Vie

The Mermaid(Rusalka) by Anna Melikyan, produced by Robert Dishdishyan. (Russia, 2008, 100 min). In this charming film, a young girl, Alisa, takes a vow of silence to protest her mother’s refusal to enroll her in ballet class. When her silence is mistaken for an intellectual disability, Alisa is sent to a special-needs school in a rural town. With the help of another student, Alisa discovers she can make people’s wishes come true.  When she turns eighteen and moves to Moscow, she wonders if her extraordinary gift might also be a curse.  Similar in style and tone to the French hit Amelie, Mermaid features digital deception to enhance the fantastical elements. The original Russian title refers to the water sprit of Slavic myth, also referenced in Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid.” In Russian with English subtitles. Ligne de Vie by Serge Avédikian (France, 2003, 12 min.) An animated short film about the Holocaust.

May 3, Sunday, 3 pm
$12.00 ($10 ticket for members, seniors, and students)

Float preceded by System of a Down Music Videos
Followed by Q&A

Float by Johnny Asuncion and Hrach Titizian (2008, 95 min). An ice cream parlor is the centerpiece of this quirky dramatic comedy with a unique visual style. Ray, the owner, separates from his long-time wife and decides to move in with his bachelor employees, Gevork and Ramon. Things get complicated when Ray’s daughter, Emily, arrives to help reconcile her parent’s relationship and forms a bond with Gevork, Ramon considers marrying a beautiful Armenian girl, but falls for her best friend, Tami instead. Float tells the stories of very different people trying to connect with each other and themselves. System of a Down Music Videos by various Armenian film makers. (12 min.). The four members of this Grammy Award winning American rock band are of Armenian origin and are know for their politically charged songs about Armenian Genocide, Capitalism, discrimination, and pacifism.

May 3, Sunday, 6 pm
$12.00 ($10 ticket for members, seniors, and students)

Autumn (Sonbahar)  preceded by The Second Wind
Followed by Q&A

Autumn (Sonbahar)(2008, 106  min.)by Ozan Alper, tells the story of a man struggling after his release after ten years as a political prisoner. He returns to his home near the Black Sea and falls in love with a Georgian prostitute.  (Turkish, Georgian, Hamshen dialogue) A powerfully realized inner journey, this is a debut film by the first film maker from this region. The Second Wind by Varant Soudjian (France, 2008, 18 min.). The story of a young pickpocket living in a small village.

Presented by the Armenian Dramatic Arts Alliance

Buy an Ad in our Program book to Support the Film Festival! 2009

We are excited to announce ADAA’s Second Annual Armenian Film Series, which will take place
at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts May 1-3, 2009. With this new initiative, Armenian films will
now have their own series, amidst those of other ethnic films at the Boston MFA, including
Jewish, African, Palestinian, Iranian and Turkish. We are glad that our establishment of this annual
program so perfectly advances our mission of projecting the Armenian voice on the world stage
through the performing arts of film and theatre.

Buy an ad to support the Armenian Dramatic Arts Alliance in bringing this annual film series to Boston, May 1-3, 2009. Your ad will reach more than a thousand of our community's most enthusiastic supporters of the arts in our festival program brochure.

Email Ann Chaglassian for more details at: annc2@aol.com or call the ADAA office at 617 871-6764

ADAA Program Booklet Rates
$100 business card or quarter page logo
$250 half page
$500 full page

(Deadline April 20th)

The Armenian American community wants to know about YOUR business! Here's your
opportunity to reach urban Armenian-American consumers, ages 25-65, AND support the
Armenian Dramatic Arts Alliance. ADAA is offering you the opportunity to display your business
logo on the home page of its website for a monthly fee of $100 which will link to your site. ADAA
gets thousands of visitors every month who could be interested in your business, allowing you to
reach new customers!

Past Festival

2008

~ MFA Boston Armenian Film Festival ~

The Lark Farm by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani (2007, 122 min.) $12, $15*
Big Story in a Small City by Gor Kirakosian (2007, 90 min.). $8, $10*
Panel discussion - " Issues Facing Armenian Filmmakers Today ' (Free)
The People's Advocate: The Live and Times of Charles R. Garry by Hrag Yedalian (2007, 59 min.)
The War Prayer by Michael Goorjian (2008, 14 min.). $8, $10*
Calendar (1993, 74 min.) by Atom Egoyan
A Portrait of Arshile (1995, 4 min.) by Atom Egoyan. $8, $10*

The Lark Farm

by The Paolo and VittorioTaviani

Paz Vega

Big Story in a Small City

by Gor Kirakosian

...

The People's Advocate

by Hrag Yedalian

Charles Garry with Huey Newton

THE PEOPLE'S ADVOCATE Charles Garry with Black Panthers

The War Prayer
by Michael Goorjian

Michael Goorjian and Jeremy Sisto

Calendar by Atom Egoyan

A Portrait of Arshile by Atom Egoyan

The Armenian Dramatic Arts Alliance (ADAA) is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization. It's mission is to make the Armenian voice heard on the world stage through the dramatic arts of theatre and film. The organization accomplishes this mission by supporting playwrights and screenwriters and provides production opportunities, commissions, scholarships, research tools, networking resources and writing awards. The organization is currently working on creating relationships with leading theaters in the United States to establish reading series so that the winning scripts – and other scripts by ADAA-affiliated playwrights -- will be seen and heard. ADAA’s headquarters are in Cambridge, MA with worldwide affiliates in Paris, Yerevan, Los Angeles, Boston, New York and other major cities.