CULTURE > ARMENIA
Directors across borders Even though art is considered to stand above time and politics, history www.enpi-info.eu proves that it needs to adapt to major social change. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the cinema industry in all Eastern Partnership countries – including Armenia – was left with Soviet traditions and without Soviet funding. Today, this poses a number of challenges, such as adapting to a more modern approach to film directing, but also fund raising, production, distribution. Through the ‘Directors Across Borders’ project – funded within the Eastern Partnership Culture programme – the EU is supporting young specialists to develop filming skills that are making them more competitive on the international market. An EU Neighbourhood Info Centre journalist attended a training workshop, and sends this report. Text by Aghavni Harutyunyan Pictures by AFP © EU Neighbourhood INFO CENTRE
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YEREVAN – “Nola and Re are in love with each other. While a stupid quarrel separates them, a song keeps them connected. But as every song this one also has to come to an end…” This is the one-line description of a film project presented by Arevik Avanesyan during the “Story development workshop”, organized by Directors Across Borders (DAB) in Yerevan. “For a beginner, this workshop gives a lot of information, good contacts, and opportunities to learn, communicate, and understand,” says Arevik, 29, from Edjmiatsin. She is a graduate of the Yerevan State Uni- EU Neighbourhood Info Centre Feature no. 104 versity’s department of Informatics and Applied Mathematics, but after This is a series of features on her degree she decided to apply to the HAYFILM Filmmaking School. projects funded by the EU Regional Now, Arevik is the Film Night events’ coordinator at the Naregatsi Art Programme, prepared by journalists Institute, a non-profit organisation dedicated to serving Armenia’s cul- and photographers on the ground or the EU Neighbourhood Info Centre. tural heritage through the creation of a forum where the spirit of art © 2013 EU Neighbourhood Info Centre and the people’s common voice can resonate freely.
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“This is a unique way to get to know people in this business, and to start contacts that will be developed once we go back home.”
N Trainer Antoine Le Bos speaks during the workshop.
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Directors across borders
Together with the writers Hasmik Hovhannisyan and Eva Martirosyan, Arevik is taking part in the workshop as the producer of a drama under the fiction category. Their budget estimate for the production of the film is around €250,000. “The involvement of participants from different countries and with various backgrounds,” she says, “allows us to gain a lot of knowledge in different fields, categories and genres. Moreover, practical work following the theory makes the workshop really effective.”
How to create a good story for a movie? Before becoming an EU supported project, Directors Across Borders was a network of filmmakers from the Caucasus and neighboring countries: they believed that cinema is poised to create endless possibilities to regenerate life and to enrich each other, and their common goal was to bring communities closer through the lens of a camera. In November 2011, the DAB project received a grant from the EU within the Eastern Partnership Culture Programme, with the aim of developing a broader scope and to realize its different components. The main concept of the project is to facilitate cross-border cultural and economic collaboration, by providing a networking platform for regional filmmakers and cinema support organizations and industry experts from around the world. The capacity-development workshops are one of the axes of the programme. Particularly, the ‘Story Development’ workshop aims at providing emerging scriptwriters, producers and directors with the fundamental skills on how to create more engaging cinematic stories, and how to package them in ways that will make films more competitive in the global market. Out of 22 applicants from Eastern Partnership countries, only 12 were selected for the workshop. Thirty-six-year-old Oleg Semtsov, a director from the Ukrainian film production company Simferopol, was among them. “It’s the first time ever I am participating in a workshop,” says Oleg: “It’s a great opportunity to learn and to gain skills in script writing and story development.” For him, this experience also brings the opportunity to establish contacts, and to confront specific issues. “This is a unique way to get to know people in this business, and to start contacts that will be developed once we go back home.” As a matter of fact, the workshop provides excellent opportunities for all the participants to promote their films to donors/investors and industry professionals, and to receive regional and international production support. The Ukrainian director has come to the workshop with his drama about a young family breaking apart under the pressure of problems: betrayal, financial distress, a child’s sudden illness. “I came to Yerevan with a project for which I am the writer and the director. Even though I have the experience of writing scripts, I have learned a lot throughout the whole course,” assures Semtsov. During the workshops, filmmakers are provided with an invaluable feedback about their films still in the development stage, and they are helped in the refining of their narrative quality and production value. Ultimately, the workshops support participants in making more effective presentations to financing agencies that they will apply to in the future.
N Oleg Semtsov.
“The EU financial support allows DAB to hire the best trainers, internationally renowned in their fields”
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Directors across borders
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Better films sell better… According to Lusine Martirosyan, DAB Project Coordinator, the Cinema Across Borders Online Network created as part of the project involves more than 1,400 people, mainly specialists. She explains that a number of issues have been challenging the project from the very beginning: the website has being systematically hacked, the first Ukrainian partner couldn’t fulfill its obligations and had to be changed, Azerbaijani filmmakers have not yet applied to any of the events.
N Arevik Avanesyan and Olga Kazak take part at the seminar.
“Despite this fact,” she says, “we have managed to find experts from Azerbaijan for our Legislative Harmonization Programme.” Moreover, the project has succeeded in putting together several workshops across the region, from Yerevan to Istanbul. “The EU financial support allows DAB to hire the best trainers, internationally renowned in their fields,” says Martirosyan. She notes that international trainers through training sessions and one-to-one meetings share their knowledge and expertise with the workshop participants, the vast majority of whom are young specialists from the region. This means a lot for the modernisation of the Eastern European film industry. “During all the activities organized in the framework of the Directors Across Borders project, people have really engaged in sharing their knowledge and skills: this,” concludes Martirosyan, “will definitely result in the improvement of the film industry and in its increased competitiveness on the market, be it local or international.”
“Sharing of knowledge and skills will definitely result in the improvement of the film industry and in its increased competitiveness on the market, be it local or international”
Directors Across Borders www.facebook.com/pages/Directors-Across-Borders/219235171507475 The aim of the project is to foster the development of conditions and structures through which cinema can be a vector for sustainable economic, social and human development within and between EaP Countries. Objectives To build cross border and cross cultural cooperation in the EaP and neighboring countries by means of cinema. To develop professional networks between stakeholders in the cinema sphere. To create cultural diversity and tolerance through professional cooperation in cinema industries. To improve the skills and capacities of cinema as agents of social economic and cultural development. Participating countries Armenia, Georgia, Turkey, Ukraine Timeframe 2011- 2014
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