Manana Films Daily

Moving a Mountain’s new nomination

2011-06-10T23:28:00.000-07:00

Moving a Mountain is nominated in Ventura International Film Festival, which will take place in July 8-18, 2011 in California.

This is the 5th nomination of this film, including the Best Documentary Film Award in Pakistan. The film has also been shortlisted in several other film festivals, so we’re looking forward to more good news.

If you still hasn’t seen the film (oh my god!), then you probably didn’t know that it’s available in HD for just $1,99. I’m sure you weren’t aware of this wonderful opportunity, otherwise I can’t find any other explanation why somebody shouldn’t have spent 20 minutes on an interesting and entertaining film, especially after seeing a fragment of it.

Online screenings of Moving a Mountain

2011-05-31T01:30:00.000-07:00

Good news for all those people who are against paying for anything online, including for cool films such as Moving a Mountain.

Yes, the good news is that Moving a Mountain is going to be broadcasted by Itzon, the online television. Itzon.tv is an online HD channel broadcasting only films, documentaries and animation, and they are going to screen Moving a Mountain once a day during one week, so that nobody misses it.

Itzon is great especially for those who have Internet-connected TV-s, but the good thing of online channels is that you can just go to Itzon.tv on your computer and watch the live streaming.

Here are the dates and times when you can tune in and watch Moving a Mountain. And the cool thing here is that the timings are universal, so when it says 7pm, it’s 7pm for every time zone, no matter where you are located - in New York or Antananarivo.

June 1, 05:15 (for early birds)

June 2, 16:41

June 3, 22:49

June 4, 16:00

June 5, 20:23

June 6, 00:19

June 7, 10:35

I forgot one more important thing; Itzon is also a monthly film festival, where the winner in each genre is being selected based on audience votes. We’d be thankful if you vote for us. If you like the film of course. If you don’t, well, vote anyway, it’s not going to kill you, right?

By the way, if you really liked the film, you can always watch it online in HD on our website only for $1,99 or buy a DVD for just $5,95. I would say this is a ridiculously little amount, and you can also feel proud for supporting an independent film studio such as ours!

Bubbles, the final video of Projections

2011-05-30T09:29:00.000-07:00

Finally, Bubbles, the last, 4th video of Projections series, is here.

And again, it’s available in English and Armenian (the only difference is the final caption of the video, so the language actually doesn’t matter here that much).

We would like to thank again Hugh Wilson and Lindsay Jehan for the cool soundtrack. The song is called Dying Again, this is a special version of the song made exclusively for Projections, but the original song is available online.

You should remember Hugh Wilson and Lindsay Jehan for their cool song written for the well known Sprite Ad. Once again, thanks to them a lot for the great work they’ve done for our studio.

So, these were all four videos of Projections, developed and produced by Manana Films on request and with support of Shahkhatun NGO. Let this be our little contribution in the great mission of bringing up responsible and active citizens both in Armenia and anywhere else. If you find that mission important, help us to spread the films around.

Thanks again to everybody who took part in the development and production of the series. It was great to have Moushegh Baghdasaryan as the director, who was strictly in charge of every little process happening during the work. Thanks to everybody who acted in it (the full list will be available soon), and to Narek Javadyan (check out the production photos that he made) and Roma Ghukasyan for assisting throughout the whole process. And special thanks to Roma for shooting the funny making-of video. And of course, thanks to Shahkhatun NGO for an interesting project.

In case you’ve missed any of the films, here they are; Dreams, The Citizen, Paper, Bubbles.

The Citizen, second video of Projections

2011-05-25T06:18:00.000-07:00

Please meet The Citizen, the 2nd video of Projections series.

This is another part of the Projections, and its slogan is “Stand Up for your vote - someone might try to steal it, during your lifetime or after you die”. Share the video if you like it.

And again, the film is available both in English and Armenian, as well as it’s mobile-ready thanks to Vimeo; if you use any of iThingies (the videos are as cool on mobile screens, checked on numerous iPods and iPhones in the studio), or any Android or WebOS device (Palm Pre, for example; I wonder if anyone from our visitors use it).

If anyone is not aware yet - Projections are short video series on democracy and civil rights, directed by Moushegh Baghdasaryan, our evil mastermind. You should definitely have a look at Dreams, the 1st video of the series, as well as the short making-of video.

So, 2 videos are available, other two are coming during this week. Check back soon.

First video of Projections is available

2011-05-22T00:53:00.000-07:00

At last, we’re happy to present you the Dreams, the first video of Projections series.

Dreams is a 45-second-long clip, which slogan is “Our dreams come true at the cost of someone else’s freedom”.

The film is available both in English and Armenian.

We would like to thank again Raised by Swans, one of our favorite bands, for the wonderful soundtrack of the video. The composition is called “Violet light” and can be purchased online, together with the other really cool songs of the band.

Also, many thanks to all the people who acted in it, and sorry to those who acted but didn’t end up in the final cut, nothing personal! The full cast and crew list will be available soon, too.

So, you can watch the Dreams online in full HD resolution, and the video is mobile-ready; it can be easily streamed on any iOS, Android and PalmOS device, just tap on any video you want to stream on your mobile phone and watch it full-screen.

If you like the video or find the idea of it important, go ahead and share it.

The three other videos will be online soon, too. Enjoy!

Making-of video from production of Projections

2011-05-08T03:09:00.000-07:00

As we promised once, we are going to shoot making-of videos for all the projects we work on. It’s not always possible of course. For example, when you make a documentary film, it’s a bit ridiculous to walk around with a crew in a, say, a village on the borderline of the country and being watched by a number of soldiers, and have a guy filming you during that.

But for other types of production it can be a lot of fun. That’s why we made this very short video while working on Projections, so that you don’t get bored while waiting for the actual films.

Besides that, you can also check out some photos and stills of the project here and on our Facebook nest.

All the 4 videos will be available next week both in Armenian and English.

Projections are almost ready

2011-05-03T10:59:00.000-07:00

So, by the end of this week, all videos of Projections will be available on our website. It’s been a long and hard work, but the films are really cool, interesting and fresh.

The films will be available online in a week, first in Armenian, and English versions will follow shortly.

We also edit a short, 1-2-minute-long making-of video, for those who are interested.

Meanwhile, check out some more photos of the production process here and also in the Facebook album for Projections. Oh, you don’t have a Facebook account? How are you going to click the “Like” button below this post? Think about it!

Music for Projections

2011-04-15T09:51:00.000-07:00

We always pay a lot of attention to music in our films, since we all like music in general (those who has been to our studio, has probably seen Moush’s guitar), and we usually don’t work with people who listen to crap. Seriously.

The work on music for our new project, Projections, has been especially interesting. Since the videos are quite experimental, we wanted the soundtracks to be really cool by themselves.

So, we’re proud to work with two different groups of artists on these video series.

Music for one of the films is written and performed by Hugh Wilson and Lindsay Jehan, the authors of the well-known “Falling Away”, the one you probably know from the cool Sprite commercial.

The music for the other film is from Raised by Swans (they are also known for the music for “Chloe” by Atom Egoyan), one of our most favorite bands, which made the experience of working with them especially enjoyable. For example, here is one of my personal favorites.

So, once again, our biggest thanks and gratitude to these wonderful people for taking Projections to a new level with their work, and doing that simultaneously from Canada and New York to Singapore. Thank you guys a lot for believing in this project.

Neighbors premiere screening in Istanbul

2011-04-13T06:10:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the day we were waiting for so long. Neighbors was finally screened for the first time. It was a special screening in frames of Istanbul International Film Festival, in an event organized by Anadolu Kultur and Golden Apricot. The film was screened together with other films made on Armenia Turkey Cinema Platform; Galata by Diana Kardumyan, Master of Doves by Arthur Sukiasyan, Puppet Theatre by Canay Ozden, and Don’t Get Lost Children by Gulengul Altinas.

Since the interest towards these films is rising, Anadolu Kultur will probably organize an additional screening later here.

Our huge thanks again to all the organizers for this great event, but we have to fly back to Yerevan to finish the Projections and all the other stuff. You know, really cool stuff.

Moving a Mountain is nominated again

2011-04-03T22:51:00.000-07:00

Yes, Moving a Mountain again got nominated, this time in International Festival of Film & Culture in Greece. The event will take place in August 1-8, 2011 in Patras City.

So, this is already the fourth international festival in this film’s event history, including one Best documentary film award. It’s not bad I would say, but this is still the first quarter of the year, we look forward for more good news.

If you haven’t seen the film yet, we strongly recommend you to watch it, since it’s available online in HD, as well as on DVD now.

New project and shootings

2011-04-02T01:36:00.000-07:00

Our studio keeps generating new awesome ideas and projects all the time, so that our audience, all those cool, good-looking, interesting and intellectual people can have more and more visual food of a good quality for their unresting minds.

Projections is one of the new and experimental projects we’ve been working on since the beginning of this year, and started the shootings in March. It’s a series of PSA-s about civil society and importance of being an active citizen. Series contain three one-minute-long advertisements, all done with experimental technique and style.

All three films will be ready and available on our website in the highest quality in mid-April, as well as broadcasted by several TV channels of Armenia. And maybe some other places too, I don’t know.

Meanwhile, check some photos from the shootings on our website, and on our Facebook page.

Meet the Neighbors

2011-03-31T00:01:00.000-07:00

At last, after almost one and half a year of hard work, our epic documentary film, Neighbors, is ready to go.

This was probably the heaviest project that we ever worked on, in many ways; the subject of Armenian-Turkish relationships is something not everyone would risk to work on, but we were stupid ambitious enough not only to work on it, but to go to the actual borders and film people living on the edge of two different civilizations for a whole year. We had to deal with two different governments who have no diplomatic relations with each other, worked with national security, three different armies, got arrested and taken to the court, and generally we managed to drive a number of governmental institutions mad. Despite all the adventures, we did everything to make a very interesting and emotional story and present you the colorful characters of nice, controversial, funny and crazy people that you’ll love.

Once again, I would like to thank all the people who worked very hard on this film; thanks to Moushegh and David, the cruel cameramen, and Narek, who assisted them; to Tzovinar and Gayane for an outstanding soundtrack and performance; to Nesra, who put all the efforts for the film with love and devotion; to Tim Straight, who followed every single day of the work on the film and supported it in all the possible ways, to all Manana, where every single person was doing everything to help us on the most difficult periods of the project, to Paros Foundation for support and guidance, and of course, the Royal Norwegian Embassy, Golden Apricot Film Festival and Anadolu Kultur, the sponsors and supporters of this film. Thanks for being crazy enough to believe that this initiative can come true.

So, Neighbors’ premiere screening will take place in Istanbul on April 12th, in frames of Istanbul International Film Festival, those who are there or plan to attend the festival, make sure to be there. If you forget to buy a ticket, or will have any problems getting inside, or will need any kind of help, please make sure not to ask me for anything. And don’t look for me. And I don’t know you. Leave me alone. Ehm, sorry, it’s just something left from the screenings of The Third Rider. Don’t pay attention.

The film is not available online or on DVD-s yet, but it will be later this year, so don’t forget to check our website regularly.

Moving a Mountain is available for watching

2011-03-18T11:54:00.000-07:00

So, finally Moving a Mountain is available for watching on our website for only $1,99! This is the first film that is available for sale on our website, but soon some others will be online, too.

The principle of paying for a view on our website is very simple; you go to the Watch the film page, click play, select the way you prefer for paying, and the film will be available for you for 48 hours. In HD quality, by the way. I know, I know, no need to thank us, it’s ok.

As about the payment methods, right now you can purchase it with PayPal or Amazon accounts. If you don’t have an account in any of these services, no need to burst into tears; PayPal supports payments with credit and debit cards even without opening an account, so, it will take only a minute from you.

Almost forgot; if you really like the film and want to have it in your personal collection, you can order the DVD on Moving a Mountain's Indieflix page for only $5,95.

As about agreements concerning public screenings and other events, it’s better to get in touch with us personally.

Moving a Mountain wins The Best Documentary Film award

2011-03-15T11:57:00.000-07:00

While we’re working our Final Cuts off on finishing Neighbors (I’ve tried to jump out the window after another sleepless night, but couldn’t open it), Moving a Mountain makes us happy and gives another reason not to break the keyboards in desperation, while deadlines approach us rapidly.

We accidentally found out that Moving a Mountain has won The Best Documentary Film award in FiLUMS International Film Festival in Pakistan. As we haven’t been informed about it, I almost fell off the chair when read about it in Herald Tribune this morning.

And the interesting detail is that it's not the short documentary nomination, but the whole documentary category, although the film is only 20 minutes long.

Well, so far the festival circuit of this film goes quite well, but we probably need to read more newspapers from now on.

I feel people pulling me off the computer, showing the amount of work left, shouting on me and hitting me with a calendar with a lot of dates marked red on it, and, in general, insulting and abusing me, so, back to work!

Review of The Third Rider in Asbarez

2011-03-12T05:40:00.000-08:00

It appears that Asbarez.com has published a review of one of our films, The Third Rider. The article is very interesting and well-written, and, what was most important, the writer went through all the most important points of what we tried to express with the film, which made us all feel quite happy, since this is so far the most controversial (although... wait until you see Neighbors) film our studio has made, and all the feedback both from the audience and from media were either very good, or extremely criticizing.

And I personally, as the director of the film, was especially happy for the following sentence, which proves the experiments we did with the documentary genre in that film weren’t in vain.

“While remaining true to the most basic understanding of documentary as a factual sub-genre of film, The Third Rider, like Barking Island, uneasily straddles the line between fact and fiction, history and narrative.”

Neighbors Premiere Screening in April

2011-03-09T04:45:00.000-08:00

Last couple of months were the period of intensive editing of Neighbors. And now, when it’s already more than a year that our studio has been working on this project, the film is almost done. And while most of us are busy with the final corrections in the editing, soundtrack and other aspects of the film, I am happy to announce that the date of the world premiere screening of Neighbors is already set, thanks to Anadolu Kultur, one of the supporter organizations of the project; it will be screened on April 12th, at 19:00 in Istanbul, in frames of Istanbul International Film Festival.

That will be quite an event!

Moving a Mountain nominated for two festivals

2011-02-23T08:34:00.000-08:00

And again good news from film festivals’ world; Moving a Mountain is nominated for two film festivals; Al Jazeera International Film Festival in Qatar and Cape Winelands Film Festival in South Africa.

The film will be screened in South Africa in March, and in Qatar in April.

These are only the first countries where this film is going to be screened this year; Moving a Mountain has just started it’s circuit around the world, so we’re looking forward for more news and more countries.

New projects

2011-01-18T02:07:00.000-08:00

The beginning of 2011 was very intense; the amount of work made us forget stupid things like New Year holidays and other simple joys of life. Lots of things are going on these days, so first let me introduce you two new projects that our studio launched on the second half of December.

Neither-Nor (a working title, may be changed in future) is a short film directed by Moushegh, therefore the film is really experimental and tricky. Although the draft script was written earlier this year, we’ve spent several weeks on shaping and finalizing it, analyzing similar stories that happened around the world, consulting with psychologists, testing the situations in real life and applying them to other people in order to be realistic.

In My Arrogant Opinion is also a short fiction film about a distant clash of two completely different people who never knew each other, but somehow turned to be enemies. The intense conflict evolves over the film, painfully revealing the well hidden sides of the characters.

Both films are in pre-production period, the shootings will start in the end of this month. The estimated release month of both films is April. Or maybe I shouldn’t have said that, as the deadlines are so difficult to keep. But anyway.

Both Neither-Nor and In My Arrogant Opinion are being made with the support of Royal Norwegian Embassy as two different parts of one project, so, once again, our warm gratitude to them!

And, as always, you can follow the progress of these films here, as well as by following our updates on Facebook page. We also tweet from time to time, if you’re interested of course. As soon as the shootings start, you’ll have plenty of production photos to watch (the most fun part for us).

Two more projects are still being developed and will be visible on our Current Projects page soon.

In the meantime, Neighbors, our epic movie of the decade, is in post-production in 24/7 mode (one day we will learn how to work like normal people and sleep at home at least once a week), the estimated release date is the beginning of February.

Good news; Moving a Mountain is going to be available on several platforms soon; Amazon Videos on Demand, Indieflix, Itzon online TV and Hulu. There are still some preparations to be finished, I’ll make a detailed post about the distribution of this film next week.

Our studio is 1 year old

2010-12-12T01:50:00.000-08:00

That’s right, happy birthday, Manana Youth Films, you’re 1 year old now! Although our core crew has been working together for much longer than a year, the studio was officially founded a year ago.

Usually, when you hear about some “youth studio”, it’s either a small production organization founded and sponsored by a film college, which produces one or two shorts per year (usually the diploma works of the students), or it’s a place where film students gather, but never produce anything, although keep calling it a studio.

About a year ago we had an idea of starting an independent organization, where young filmmakers will work on projects that other studios may not risk to take, a place that will challenge the classic production companies by its own new way of running visual arts business. A place where ambitious young professionals (or non-professionals), which share our philosophy of filmmaking, will get a solid platform to speak up.

And during this year we’ve achieved quite a lot. MYF is known in most of the film festivals, including the biggest film events, it has partners and friends among many companies around the world that work in different spheres of film and media industry, our films have been screened and broadcasted worldwide, our filmmakers right now simultaneously work on a number of very different projects, from full-length documentaries to experimental shorts, we invite the best professionals both from Armenia and abroad to give their advice to us during the work. We also managed to be announced wanted by an international security system (you know how it’s called), get arrested, sued (proven not guilty) and drive national securities nuts.

And now I can proudly announce that Manana Youth Films is one of the most successful independent youth film studios in the world. We have a pile of the most ambitious plans of conquering the galaxy, this first year was just a small percent of what we intend to do in this sphere.

For one more time, thanks to Manana Youth Center, where most of our filmmakers studied while being teenagers; a place where you learn to break all the possible boundaries, a magic factory where kids realize that crazy ideas worth living for.

Thanks to all the people that believed in us since the very beginning and has been crazy enough to support our ideas. You won’t regret it.

Happy birthday!

Paper Garden on UN TV

2010-11-29T04:03:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-26T02:57:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-03T23:11:00.000-07:00

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

2010-11-01T11:46:00.000-07:00

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!

New Website Thing #3

2010-10-30T11:35:00.000-07:00

As you may have noticed, the website was down for a couple of days; we were changing the design of some of the pages, and the database was damaged during the testings (don’t ask me why, ok?).

Moush, our cruel web-mastermind, was working day and night to finish the planned changes and recover the website. And here is a short description of what has been changed; both films and current projects are now much more integrated with the blog. Which means, if you open, let’s say, Moving a Mountain page, you may always see what are the latest news on the blog concerning this exact project. Besides, you can look through all the photos, videos and awards of the project in separate albums. And there are some minor changes all over the website, for example, you can have basic technical information about each film on its right sidebar (more detailed technical info will be available for every film when our online store is ready).

All these improvements will let you follow the progress of every current project we work on much closer and get all the latest updates on films and projects that interest you. Although I know that you are interested in every single thing that happens at the studio, aren’t you?

Coming soon: a separate page that will bring together all the videos available on the website; films, trailers, teasers and production videos (yes, we are going to make those from time to time now, too).

You see, we do our best to make it easy and fun for you to find any needed information here. Aren’t we the nicest studio ever?

Paper Garden Awarded in 01SJ Biennal

2010-10-07T11:23:00.000-07:00

One of our films, Paper Garden, was awarded in a film competition organized by Adobe Foundation and ZER01. The film was featured as a part of the 2010 01SJ Biennal.

Paper Garden is a short documentary showing the environmental situation in Yerevan. The film was made for the Beyond Green international film series of ListenUp! and Adobe Youth Voices.

Not bad folks, eh? For the third time this month, congratulations to us!

Green Day #4

2010-10-06T00:46:00.000-07:00

Our next interesting meeting was organized with two Armenian filmmakers, Arman Yeritsyan and Inna Sahakyan, the directors of the documentary “The Last Tightrope Dancer in Armenia”, a touching and fascinating film about the dying art of tightrope dancing and their last carriers produced by Bars Media studio.

Arman Yeritsyan is a well-known documentary filmmaker. Most of his previous works, including “Under the Open Sky” and “Hello, Fellini” were awarded in a number of prestigious international film festivals.

The meeting, which included also the screening of the film, lasted till late evening, despite the heavy rain and terrible wind.

A short description of the film for those who are interested:

Zhora (76) and Knyaz (77) were once the most celebrated masters of tightrope dancing in Armenia. Today, they are the only surviving performers who can keep this ancient art alive against the current of contemporary society. Having been bitter rivals throughout their lives, a common objective has finally brought them together: to train the only student of tightrope dancing left in the country. Hovsep, a sixteen year old orphan boy, has to decide whether or not to accept the role of the last tightrope dancer in Armenia, in a society that has abandoned both him and the art of tightrope dancing.

Check out the previous Green Days of the studio, by the way. Why shouldn’t you?

The Third Rider Screenings

2010-09-27T00:44:00.000-07:00

This was a good month for The Third Rider; on September 9th it was screened in Aye-Aye International Film Festival in Nancy, France together with Dinner Time, and on September 24th it was screened in Arpa International Film Festival in LA, USA.

More screenings are coming up!

Bye-Bye, David!

2010-09-10T06:02:00.001-07:00

This is a very sad day for our studio; David Martirosyan, one of the founders of Manana Films, is leaving us. He moves to another country to chase new adventures and achieve more heights.

David is one of the most talented, hardworking and responsible filmmakers I ever knew. He’s been our friend since very early childhood and worked with us since he was only 13. I always remember how he had to stand on a chair to reach the camera viewer back then. And I’m sure one day in future you’ll need to stand on a chair to shake his hand.

I’m keeping him in our Members page, because no matter where he is, he’ll always be an important part of our studio, and one day we’ll blow your minds away together with something new and crazy. Goodbye for now, David. Keep it up.

The Third Rider is selected for Arpa Film Festival

2010-08-27T08:43:00.000-07:00

Another festival news! The Third Rider has been selected for screening in Arpa International Film Festival in California. The event will take place from September 21 - 26, 2010 at Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood.

As you may remember, The Third Rider is also nominated in Aye-Aye International Film Festival in Nancy, France, which will take place also in September of this year.

New Website Thing #2

2010-08-08T01:27:00.000-07:00

Another new thing is added to our website; studios’ friends page. During our work we meet different people and organizations who support us in our work. The support may be financial, technical, mental, or all together.

This is the list of people and organizations, that have ever helped us or are still helping with any of the projects, or are being helpful in general. The list will be updated quite often.

So now, when you go to About Us page, which also has been slightly changed, have a look at friends’ page. Who knows, maybe your name is already there.

New Website thing

2010-08-03T13:15:00.000-07:00

Moush and me are the biggest fans of our studio website, and almost every day we come up with a new idea of how to improve this or that feature. Small things are being changed or added quite often, but, thanks to Moush’s strict coordination, the website always keeps its attractive simplicity and works like a swiss clock.

And now another cool feature is added; now, when you slide the mouse over the banner on our homepage, a small button saying “Previous banners” appears on the upper right corner. Click it and go through some of our previous illustrations.

New and much bigger improvements are on their way.

Asheer’s Sculpture Revealed

2010-08-02T06:50:00.000-07:00

At last, after about 4 months of almost non-stop working, Asheer Akram’s sculpture is ready and open to public. Moving a Mountain was exhibited in Modern Arts Museum in Yerevan in July 31st. If you leave in Yerevan, you can see it there every day, until it is moved to somewhere else.

The exhibition was a great success, and Asheer is ready to leave for home soon. Hopefully, when he comes back in a year, he'll see his sculpture somewhere in the center of the city or on a nice spot in some park, where young people will come to take pictures of each other in front of it.

As about the film of the same name, the shootings are already done, and the project is entering the post-production period. Hopefully, it will be ready by the end of the summer.

Two of Our Films Nominated in France

2010-07-26T03:58:00.000-07:00

Two of our films, The Third Rider and Dinner Time (which you can watch on our website right now, by the way) are included in Oriental Express program of Aye-Aye International Film Festival, France.

The festival will take place in the beginning of September in Nancy. The screening day of The Third Rider is already set; it is September 9th, 19:00. Hopefully, I will attend it personally.

Although only 3-minute-long Dinner Time has been really successful since it was made in 2006 (it was even nominated in IDFA, the biggest documentary film festival in the world) and has a large list of awards already, we can’t tell the same about The Third Rider, which, unfortunately, didn’t travel much because of its controversial content. Let’s hope this event will change that tendency.

Temporary Pause in the Filming at the Border

2010-07-20T14:16:00.000-07:00

Those of you, who follow our activities here and on our Facebook page, have probably noticed a strange silence from us for the last couple of days (I don’t count the detailed comments on Mush’s boots). That is because our shootings are temporarily stopped here, and we are very sorry to admit that. We need to return back to Yerevan for several days and restart shootings later.

The thing is, although the preparation for this shootings took several months, we ran out of clean socks we still have faced some unexpected and really serious problems, which made us to postpone the shootings in order not to risk the whole film, which is being produced for half a year already.

Anyway, this is not the first obstacle we faced during this project. This is one of the most complicated films we ever worked on, and major and minor problems with authorities and not only were appearing every now and then. Filming on the border, especially on a border which is at the center of the world’s political attention now, is risky, challenging and, yes, quite dangerous, too. But we haven’t given up, and the shootings hopefully are going to go on in the beginning of August, all of us are doing our best to make that happen.

I strongly believe that problems and obstacles make the film more interesting, and I’m sure that at the end we are going to have a piece of work our studio can be really proud of.

Filming goes on

2010-07-18T14:27:00.001-07:00

Second day of filming on Turkish borders went really well. We met new people, visited the family who probably are going to be the main characters of the Turkish part of the film, filmed the fair of villages that takes place every summer. The latter was basically a party in the middle of a deserted area with some hundreds of people. People were drinking, dancing and singing, and of course, everything ended with a huge fight, where everyone was happy to take a part. We managed to drive away just in time.

We also visited Turkish “yailas” (tent villages, where people take their animals in summers), filmed a very interesting conversation in a tent, where we heard a lot of new facts and stories about the relations of the two villages we are filming in. The fact that they don’t know where we come from makes it more interesting, as they are being really honest.

The day was interesting and quite full, although the unstable weather and the strong wind made everything a bit more difficult. But the trip goes on, and every day promises to be more exciting than the previous one.

More photos.

First Day of the Trip to Turkey

2010-07-17T14:06:00.000-07:00

Driving to Kars took a little longer than a day because of the long stops at the borders of Georgia and Turkey. We arrived late after midnight and left for the location next morning with Nesra Gurbuz, our executive producer from Istanbul. I will not tell you about the incident with not knowing about the 2-hour time difference between Yerevan and Kars and demanding breakfast at the hotel somewhere at 6 in the morning, as it’s a shame, and nobody should know about it!

Finally, we visited the Turkish village we were watching from the other side of the border for the last few months. Was quite an unusual feeling. We met different interesting people and heard some interesting opinions, although we didn’t hope to get much on our first visit.

Not knowing the language causes difficulties, but makes all the process more challenging, especially when it comes to dealing with local military forces. The next several days are going to be full of interesting and intense shootings and trips.

And, what is really important, we didn’t forget to take a photo camera with us (I know, I can’t believe it either), and we even remembered to take a charger, unlike the last time. So no more cell-phone-made photos. Mush is taking care of it. Somebody should finally stop David though, he keeps posting them on Facebook like a maniac.

Check back every day, it’s going to be exciting. Neighbors going to a new level.

More photos.

Green Day #3

2010-07-16T22:27:00.000-07:00

One more interesting educational meeting at our place; we hosted Allen Hughes, a famous American filmmaker, the director of such hit movies as The Book of Eli and From Hell, and who has worked with Denzel Washington, Johny Depp, Gary Oldman and others.

The filmmaker met both the studio members and most of the students of Manana Center, talked about his own experience in film industry, difficulties he met during his career, working experience with big movie stars, filmmaking world in Hollywood in general, and, of course, about his Armenian mother, who had a big influence on his artistic life.

After the workshop most of us were invited to attend the screening of The Book of Eli together with the director.

Allen Hughes was a great person to meet with, very honest, funny and highly experienced in his sphere. We’ll do our best to get more and more interesting people of film industry to visit our studio and do a workshop for us.

Yes, who has Steven Spielberg’s e-mail address, by the way?

P.S. Once again, for those who don’t know; Green Days are the days we have a meeting with someone who works in film industry and who was invited to share his experience with us.

Green Day #1

Green Day #2

Another Armenia Turkey Cinema Platform Workshop

2010-07-12T13:08:00.000-07:00

Those of you, who live in Armenia or are visiting the country these days, know that Golden Apricot International Film Festival, the biggest cinema event of Armenia has started. Unfortunately, our studio has no films in the program this year, as our main projects are still in progress. Anyway, we were looking forward to the festival, because there is always lot of interesting things going on during it, and it’s a huge fun.

In frames of the festival, another workshop of ATCP (Armenia Turkey Cinema Platform), an initiative of Golden Apricot and Anadolu Kultur from Turkey, has started. This platform was created to support and encourage the cooperation of Armenian and Turkish filmmakers and producers, and it’s growing bigger every year.

If you follow our news (and you should, of course), then you remember that our Neighbors project was applied and won additional funding in frames of ATCP in April of this year in Istanbul. That is why on the first day of this month’s workshop I presented the project to the new applicants, as well as to the organizers and special guests. The film will be a part of the next year’s Golden Apricot FF program.

Besides, our studio will host some of the filmmaker guests of the festival this week, who kindly agreed to do short workshops for us and for the younger students of Manana Center.

Enjoy the festival and try to watch as many films as you can. It’s a pity most of us are going to miss the last part of it, as we’re leaving for Turkey at the end of this week, to go on with filming the Neighbors.

Some links, in case if you missed;

Project Pitching in Istanbul

Press Conference for Neighbors Project

ATCP in other media (those I could find):

Panarmenian.net - English, Armenian

Tert.am - English, Armenian

Moving a Mountain: filming almost done

2010-07-03T00:37:00.000-07:00

The filming for Moving a Mountain is almost done. Asheer has finally finished his work, the sculpture is ready and waiting for the big guys’ decision. The result is beyond all my expectations, and now I am glad I have never seen the sketches of it before.

Now, the most important moment is still to come; soon it will be clear where the sculpture will be placed.

Meanwhile, the filming process for this project comes to its end. Here are a couple of more stills from the materials.

Shootings for 40 00 N, 45 00 E and a new film coming up

2010-06-28T01:26:00.000-07:00

40 00 N, 45 00 E project is still in progress, most of the Sunday was spent for more filming outside of Yerevan. We hope to finish the production period of this film by the middle of July, but it mostly depends on whether Mush and David pass their exams if we manage to get all the actors for the final chapter of the film and finish up some minor organizational works.

Last month I wrote about another short documentary film we are working on now, about Asheer Akram, a young American sculptor who is making a metal sculpture in Armenia. Good news; the sculpture will be ready in a few days, and the shootings are almost over. I had a hard time trying to come up with an interesting title for this project, till Asheer suggested a working title himself. So, please meet our new film project, Moving a Mountain. Coming soon! Hopefully.

More photos here.

Some updates

2010-06-16T00:52:00.000-07:00

It’s been quite a while since our last post, most of you probably were thinking we have gone for a vacation. Nope! We’re here and working even harder.

First news; the next two episodes of 40 00 N, 45 00 E are being filmed right now, and one of them is being filmed in Byurakan Astrophysical Observatory, one of the most beautiful and amazing places in Armenia.

Neighbors project is going pretty much as it was planned; we are going to film on Turkish side of the borders somewhere in the middle of July. Lots of preparation work to do by that time, hope everything goes fine.

And the latest news; I spent the last week in Kiev, working as a trainer in filmmaking workshop organized by OneMinutesJr. and UNICEF. The subject of the workshop was HIV/AIDS, and all the 15 teenage participants were either infected themselves or had HIV-positive family members. As a result, we had 15 one-minute-long films telling the true life stories of these children. This was the fourth and perhaps most psychologically challenging OneMinutesJr. workshop I worked for, and I’m definitely looking forward for new ones.

More photos on our website.

More Filming for Neighbors Project

2010-05-20T23:53:00.000-07:00

We just came back from another trip to borders, where we were filming for the Neighbors project. We finally managed to get access to some really fascinating places where no one else except military officials are allowed to be. The trip was tough; lots of walking through swamps, hours of driving through dusty deserted areas with almost no roads, military checkpoints every now and then, etc. Although officials were really friendly and helpful, which was very nice.

And, of course, we met our friends from the village, who were really glad to see “those filming guys” again.

Meanwhile, the film grows bigger, and one of the most important trips in frames of this project, the trip to Turkish side, is close.

More photos here.

What's up?

2010-05-10T23:06:00.000-07:00

Most of the last couple of weeks were spent on working hard on 40 00 N, 45 00 E project. This is a full-length film, which consists of 6 different stories, both fiction and documentary. Right now we are editing the first three films, the other three are being developed and will be filmed soon. Editing goes quite well, although it is very tough; scripts are being changed, concepts are reviewed, gallons of coffee are drunk. We hope to release this film in summer, but not sure in which month. The production of this film took a bit longer than we planned, but it is going to be a really, really nice one, you just wait.

Besides, we plan another trip to borders for this month, as we already miss our main characters, Narek and his family.

The other interesting news is that I also work on a short film about a very great guy and a talented sculptor from United States, Asheer Akram, who is making a metal sculpture to be placed somewhere in Yerevan.

That’s basically what we were busy with for the last several days, thought you might be interested. Oh, you’re not? Ok, sorry.

Filming on the Borders

2010-04-26T05:00:00.000-07:00

David, Mush and me are back from the village situated right on the borders of Armenia and Turkey, where we are working on our new film called Neighbors.

This was our third and longest trip to there; although it is really tough to shoot on the borders, especially when it is a film, not a news video report, we managed to film lots of interesting and exciting things and got to know our main characters much better.

As about the trip itself; it was cold, rained day and night, mud everywhere, and no drinking water at all. Oh yes, concerning the water; the dam up in Gyumri cracked when we were filming, and the whole village was warned to be ready to run like hell if the dam bursts, as the water will wash away the whole village (and most of the other located areas around, actually). We stopped complaining about lack of water when we heard that.

But the trip was great, as all our trips are. We’ll visit the village one more time early in May.

Meanwhile, we are back to Yerevan now to drink some water, wash away the mud and to work on 40 00 N, 45 00 E, which we hope to release in summer.

Here are some photos from the trip. Sorry for the quality, they all are shot by cell phone, as we forgot the photo camera. As always...

Green Day #2

2010-04-19T06:01:00.001-07:00

As you may already know from my previous posts, we try to organize educational days for our studio regularly and to invite specialists from any sphere of film production for a meeting. Unfortunately, we don’t manage to do this as often as we would like to (hey, we’re making two full-length films at the same time after all!), but these meetings (we call them Green Days) are very important for all of us, that’s why I’ll do my best to arrange them more often.

This time our guest was Avo John Kambourian, an Apple product specialist from Los Angeles, who is currently volunteering at Birthright Armenia.

Avo organized a short and very interesting Final Cut tips workshop for us. This is the main editing software we use at Manana Films, but all of us learnt it on our own, that is why a workshop from a specialist was extremely useful for us.

Thank you very much Avo! Hope to see you as one of the Apple top managers in a few years. Don’t forget to send us a couple of free computers when it happens!

Related stuff:

Green Days

Avo’s blog

Press Conference for Neighbors Project

2010-04-16T13:41:00.000-07:00

Right after officially announcing our new project called Neighbors, a press conference was organized in Golden Tulip Hotel in Yerevan, where the organizers of Golden Apricot International Film Festival, as well as Artsvi Bakhchinyan, the coordinator of Armenia Turkey Cinema Platform, and the directors - Diana Kardumyan, Arthur Sukiasyan and me presented the winning projects to media representatives.

Here are some photos from the event, and several links to the articles online (in Armenian only).

Project Pitching in Istanbul

2010-04-14T13:02:00.000-07:00

We have some good news; remember the “secret” project we were recently working on together with other films? I was regularly uploading some photos and stills from our researching work which we were doing in far regions of Armenia. Well, there is no meaning to keep it in secret anymore, as too many people already know about it.

So, the new project is a full length documentary called Neighbors, which we started couple of months ago with the support of Royal Norwegian Embassy. The film is about two villages located right on the Armenian-Turkish borders. That’s it, no more information for now!

The good news is that couple of days ago Golden Apricot International Film Festival and Anadolu Kultur organized a film project pitching in Istanbul in frames of Armenia Turkey Cinema Platform, where I was among number of other filmmakers presenting their films for additional funding, and we got it! Thanks to these two great organizations for creating this opportunity.

Those who don’t follow our activities regularly, should check out the posts about the first, second and third trips to the filming location. From now on, you can follow the progress of this project both in this blog and in Current Projects page (as well as all the other active projects, by the way).

As about Istanbul, it still remains one of the most amazing cities in the world. As I am too lazy to take photos, my friends provided me with couple of them, so check our website blog for that.

Photos by Diana Kardumyan.

Couple of links

2010-04-12T22:09:00.000-07:00

Just in case, if anyone needs some more information about us and our studio, here are couple of useful links for that;

Our website, Manana Youth Films

Studio members;

Gor Baghdasaryan, Moushegh Baghdasaryan, Narek Javadyan, Anna Javakhyan, David Martirosyan, Tzovinar Talyan.

Contact info

And, of course, our blog, which is being updated quite frequently.

Besides, you can follow to all our news on Manana Youth Films Facebook Page.

Screenings in London + Sako Available for Viewing

2010-03-24T04:26:00.000-07:00

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

2010-03-13T06:12:00.000-08:00

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

2010-03-01T00:24:00.000-08:00

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.

What we've been up to

2010-02-19T03:58:00.000-08:00

It’s been a long time since our last post, and I decided to make a brief update of what we’ve been up to for the last couple of weeks.

Mostly we are busy with working hard on 40 00 N, 45 00 E project, which was launched on October. This is an interesting mix of documentary and fiction stories, three stories are already filmed and are being edited, another three are still being filmed. Production period took a bit longer than we expected, mostly because of the fiction episodes, and the release date will be postponed for about a month.

Besides, we are working on our online store, and soon we will be able to get rid of that annoying “Not available yet” sign, and you can purchase some of our films there. The coolest thing about our new store is that there won’t be any DVD-s. I personally hate DVD-s, I can’t stand them, I feel sick when I read the words “PAL/NTSC” and “region codes”, I feel a monster waking up inside me when I’m trying to play a DVD, or to burn it, or to copy it, I want to…

Ehm, excuse me. What I was saying is that our films will be available in totally other format, and both getting and watching them will be much easier. And don’t ever ask us for those shiny useless rounds!

Stay tuned, I’ll post some “Making-of 40 00 N, 45 00 E” photos soon.

Researches

2010-02-05T01:05:00.000-08:00

Most attentive visitors of our website may have noticed that Manana Youth Films is more into documentary than feature filmmaking, although this tendency is being changed now. But for now I should admit that we are much more experienced in documentary, as real life seemed more interesting to us.

Documentary filmmaking requires lots of researching. Sometimes this process can last even longer than production part itself. Actually, the phases like production or pre-production often don’t work in documentary; researches can turn into actual filming, and the research object can unexpectedly change, too. That is why we spend most of our time traveling around, gathering interesting facts, meeting people and looking for interesting stories for this or that project.

The most interesting in documentary is that you keep shooting all the time, even when you are just visiting a possible location. Nobody wants to miss a good story. And interesting things usually happen the moment you relax and think about doing a break for lunch.

Everyone who has ever worked in this sphere, knows this simple rule very well. That is why Alfred Hitchcock’s opinion on documentary filmmaking seemed perfect to me for choosing it as our “Quote of the week”. Yes, the one on our homepage, you probably didn’t pay any attention to it. Thank you.

What was all this about? Ah, yes, we did some researching trips recently for a new project, the one we did our previous trip for. And we proved the rule once again; lots of interesting things happen during ordinary researching trips. Good stories never check if you have a camera with you. Fortunately, we had one. Two, actually.

Check out some stills from the materials.

Molokans: New Release

2010-01-27T12:44:00.000-08:00

In 2007 we spent several months filming Molokans living in Armenia. This was a big achievement for us, as they live in closed communities and dosn’t want to be filmed or photographed. Ethnographers from different countries still try to find a way to explore their lifestyle, but still, it’s an almost impossible thing to do; although Molokans are very calm, nice and friendly people, they never let a stranger into their life. However, this obstacle doesn’t stop researchers, because Molokans remain one of the most interesting and mysterious communities around; their culture, their religion (a unique sect of Christianity), and especially their secret ceremonies attract scientists, journalists and filmmakers.

Anyway, we managed to make a film about them. It wasn’t easy, but after the months spent in their villages and after researching this subject thoroughly, I can proudly announce that our studio has the biggest amount of exclusive materials about Molokans, including their ceremonies! We had so many useful materials that they were enough for making 6-7 totally different films about them. But our goal was to make one full-length documentary to rule them all to show Molokans as nobody had shown before. That is why the materials were never screened, in order to keep their exclusivity.

And finally the post production is almost done, and we are going to release the complete full-length version of Molokans this year. For now you can see a short teaser from the film, there will be more information available when the release date approaches.

Green days

2010-01-23T13:17:00.000-08:00

Although making films is interesting and exciting enough to keep you busy all day long, we always find more and more interesting stuff to do here at our studio. That’s how we came up with the Green days idea. It has nothing to do with the environmental issues and Greenpeace, and I don’t really remember why we called it Green, but it doesn’t matter.

Green day is when we gather (mostly in the evening) to learn something new. Usually either one of us shares his/her new experience in some sphere with others, or we invite someone to do that for us. For example, last time we had a very interesting guest, Rick Barry, who analyzed Alfred Hitchkock’s Notorious for us in such an interesting way, that the meeting lasted till late night.

So, we decided to go on with this fine tradition this year and to organize Green days at least once or twice a month. We’d love to meet all kind of specialists who have something to do with cinema world; scriptwriters, cameramen, directors, editors, actors, sound editors, production designers, etc. If you think you don’t mind spending an evening with our studio members and telling us something interesting, let me know. Coffee’s on us!

Green days are very important for us, as none of us has filmmaking education, and fortunately we have enough guts to admit that.

By the way, besides Green days, we plan lot of public events with guests and film screenings this year, so don’t miss your invitation!

More photos here.

First working trip of this year

2010-01-12T00:21:00.000-08:00

Right after New Year we went for a trip to distant regions of Armenia to look for locations for our new project we are starting this month. I’m not going to reveal the project details yet, we still have a lot preparation work to do, but it is going to be exciting. As always!

We’ve been to several villages and small towns, which were looking quite glossy and dreamy under the thick snow cover, especially at night. And although winter is a dead season for farmers, New Year is the biggest event for the small kids living here, as their fathers and elder brothers come home from abroad for couple of weeks, where they spend most of the year working to send back some money to their families. Pretty depressive.

So, these are some stills from the test shootings we made there so the post doesn’t look empty just to give you an idea. These are not photos, just stills from the footage, so if you are looking for a nice winter postcard to send to your friend in Jamaica, you better google it.

Overall, the year started very well, we’re working really hard, 2010 is going to be full of interesting events and projects. 40 00 N, 45 00 E production goes on, shootings for Commercials project will start on February, we’re still developing the scripts and concepts, this project is a totally new experience for us. Don’t want to spoil it, but if everything goes as we planned,Commercials are going to be so fresh and cool that they’ll knock your socks off! Literally.

Wish you a productive year!

Check the rest of the stills on our blog.

Exciting project in Kazakhstan

2010-01-05T05:23:00.000-08:00

UNICEF and the Government of Kazakhstan organized a very big national Youth Forum in Astana, Kazakhstan on December 3-7, 2009. I was hired by UNICEF KZ to coordinate the group of video journalists and to make series of short films to be screened during the Forum.

During the last six months we were looking for the most actual problems, finding people, exploring their environment, filming and editing. As a result, we made 20 short films from 11 regions of Kazakhstan and more than 10 animation pieces/transitions. The films were illustrating the most actual problems of the youth living in every region of Kazakhstan.

The Forum was really huge; more than 150 people were working on it for almost a year, 3000 guests were attending it on the final day in the Independent Palace, the biggest hall in the capital city, and the whole event, together with the concert organized with it, was being broadcasted live by different TV channels. It was especially important, as this was the first national youth forum organized here. The whole work was quite tough, but I felt really proud to be a part of such a big event.

Kazakh people are very nice, warm and welcoming, and while spending such a long time there and meeting hundreds of people, I never felt myself an alien. Although you don’t want to go there in winter, as it’s freezing like in The Day After Tomorrow. It was so cold I was using my balcony as a render farm to cool the computer processors. You just stand outdoors for ten minutes, and you’re a huge Swarovski sculpture. Nice, isn’t it?

See the rest of the photos on our blog.

Shootings in Noravank

2010-01-02T07:10:00.000-08:00

Noravank is a monastery located high in the mountains (as everything else in Armenia, actually). People know it also as “two-storied church”, and tourists, as well as locals usually have a lot of fun climbing up the narrow stairs.
High contrast of blue sky, yellow stone and red mountains attracts lot of photographers and filmmakers to this place.
We spent couple of days filming there for “40 00 N, 45 00 E” and met some interesting people. You’ll see them in the film when it’s ready.
If you want to go there this season, don’t forget to wear an extra coat or two, because it is freezing there like on Arctic Pole! And the wind is just unbearable, especially when you try to push the camera buttons with fingers that you don’t feel.

See some more photos on our website.

Filming in Kond

2009-12-31T07:15:00.000-08:00

We spent quite a long time recently doing some filming in Kond district in Yerevan for “40 00 N, 45 00 E” project.

Kond is the oldest district of Yerevan, and although it is surrounded by busy streets and modern buildings, the district itself reminds an ancient town which still lives in the end of 17th century. A beautiful and colorful place with extremely narrow streets, old and shapeless houses, underground passages and armies of cats jumping from roof to roof.

It’s very interesting to film there and really easy to get lost. We did both.

Mananafilms.com launched

2009-12-31T07:11:00.000-08:00

Mananafilms.com is finally online! Now you can follow the activities of Manana Youth Films studio here. You can also find us on Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. IMDB pages will be available soon.