Screenings in London + Sako Available for Viewing

David and me are back from London today, where we were attending the screenings of Sako in Human Rights Watch Film Festival. Everything went great, the film was screened in ICA and Ritzy Cinema three times, the response was excellent. We met a lot of interesting people, saw several exciting films, granted a couple of interviews, went out with both new and old friends and had some classic London rain.

Thanks to all the organizers of the festival, who did an amazing job, not just in London, but also in New York, San Francisco and Boston. It was a big pleasure to meet them. Visit their website for more information about the whole event.

I had lots of e-mails these days from different people asking where they can see the film, although I wrote in my previous post that the film will be online right after all the screenings are over. Finally it was found on Youtube, the link was spread, so I had to place it on our Facebook, and now it’s here, sooner than it was planned. Yes, who cares about what we’ve planned, when Youtube is there, right? Enjoy the film and some photos from the screenings here.

Some Upcoming Events

Couple of exciting news for everyone; one of our older films, Sako, has been included in the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival program. Little information about this event for those who doesn’t know anything about it; this is not a competition, but a selection of films on human rights issues from all over the world. These films are being screened in different cities during the year. Sako had already been screened in New York (Summer 2009) and Boston (Fall 2009). Now it is going to be screened in London and San Francisco. David Martirosyan, who is one of the key persons of our studio today (check the About Us page for his shiny face), was the cameraman of the film, although back then he had to stand on a chair to reach the camera viewer. So, David and me will attend the screenings on March 19th and 20th in London. I’ll post some photos from the event when we’re back.

And just a couple of days ago we found out that Sako will also be screened at Monterey Bay Film Festival in California on April 3rd!

Sako is a short documentary about a thirteen-year-old boy, who was made to work by his father since the age of seven at the tombstone factory. You can’t find it on our website, as the film was made way before Manana Youth Films was officially founded. I’ll post it on the blog when all the screenings are over.

Another Trip

As you may have noticed, we spend a lot of time traveling around the country. I’ve actually noticed that recently, never paid attention to that before, but yes, we leave for different villages every second week for couple of days. Although Armenia is small, it is a perfect place for a filmmaker; thousands of interesting locations, stories, colorful people, etc. We enjoy traveling around and gathering those stories.

So, we spent another weekend in a far village, filming and collecting interesting details for our new film. Sorry, can’t give out much information on this for now (“then why on earth are you writing about this?”), but all the project details will be available on the website soon.

The trip was exciting and funny; we filmed a lot, visited places that we never thought we can get in, and, as a result, had to deal with military forces in a way we wouldn’t like to ))

Mush was doing most of the filming this time, and as he complains all the time that his enormous genius is not being revealed on our website, I promised to upload some of his working photos this time. Feel the genius!

More pics here.