Paper Garden on UN TV

Great news concerning Paper Garden again; UN TV starts the distribution of our film in frames of 21st Century, their monthly newsmagazine featuring human-interest stories in a dynamic, field-oriented style. This means that the film is going to be broadcasted by most of the major TV companies around the world; UN TV provides media content to the three main syndicators - APTN, Reuters and the European Broadcasting Union, which basically means the film is going to be broadcasted almost everywhere around the globe.

Just in case anyone didn’t get it right; it’s a big deal.

The film has been specially re-edited for it, we made some extra shootings for it, and although it reminds more a news video report now, but, hey, now the whole world is going to see it! Special thanks to ListenUp! and Austin Haeberle, who made the thing happen.

The film is available online now, although it’s the changed version, with TV-style narration. Have a look at it here.

What’s up #2

How are you doing? It’s been a while, eh? It’s time for another short news digest from the studio, isn’t it?

Let’s start from the Neighbors then. This film suffered a lot during this year, it truly deserves a title of an epic project; since January we’ve been filming for it on the most tough places, working with three different armies, dealing with all the power structures both in Armenia and Turkey, and the filming crew went through all kind of international scandals, detentions and trials.

But the work still goes on, we made another trip to the borders this month, another trip is coming up, so, hopefully, not much left to wait.

Asheer Akram, the great sculptor from our latest film, Moving a Mountain, has presented both his work done in Armenia and the film to the public in USA recently. As he claims, the presentation went very well. I will post the photos and more details from the event as soon as we get them.

In the meantime, more interesting stuff is coming up; two short fiction film projects will start in December, besides, soon we start a production of a short film series consisting of three short videos. As always, you can follow the progress of making them on our Current Projects page; not a single studio provides its audience with that kind of opportunity, so a warm thank you would be nice.

And some more news; I’ve spent another week this month working as a trainer in a filmmaking workshop in Osh, Kyrgyzstan, organized by OneMinutesJr. and UNICEF. This time the participants were Kyrgyz and Uzbek teenagers, representatives of the two biggest ethnic groups of this region. As you may know, this city was one of the hottest zones of conflict between these two groups this year, that is why the subject of the workshop was, obviously, peace. All the participants had a tragic experience during this conflict, and all of their wishes and dreams were about living in peace. Each of the teenagers produced a one-minute-long film during the workshop. If you’re interested, check out Chris Schuepp’s online diary of the workshop (as well as of the previous ones).

Ok, that’s enough for today. As you see, lots of stuff is going on here. So I better stop writing and go back to work.

Seagulls used in a Polish film

Some fragments from one of our older short films, Seagulls, made in 2004, has recently been used in a Polish short documentary video made by Servimedia.

Seagulls was filmed in a hazardous waste in Nubarashen, Armenia, which is considered to be a huge ecological threat for Armenia.

A Polish company called EcoTech has implemented a revolutionary technology of safe disposal of dangerous substances. Armenia is one of the countries the company works in, trying to prevent the ecological disaster.

This 4-minute-long film featuring some fragments from Seagulls tells about that invention. Now the film is going to travel around the world with high-positioned politicians to promote the technology.

Moving a Mountain released

Moving a Mountain, the film that we’ve been working on since April 2010, is finally ready.

It took three months of shootings and two months of post-production, including sound and music design and color correction.

The 20-minute-long film shows Asheer Akram, an American sculptor, originally from Pakistan, that came to Armenia to make a metal sculpture, which should embody his impressions about Armenian culture, history, lifestyle, as well as his ideas about current situation of Armenia. What makes it really interesting, is that this is his first visit to Armenia, a country he knew nothing about before, and he has only four months to finish his work.

The film is very interesting, dynamic and entertaining. Another cool piece from your favorite Manana Youth Films. Go ahead and check out the short fragment from the film, just to get a general idea of what the film looks like.

The questions concerning film’s distribution are still being discussed, that is why it’s not available for public viewing yet, unless you are a close friend of ours and can knock on the studio door and beg on your knees ask for a private screening. If you’re not a friend, you better do your best do become one, believe me!