An Evening of Short Documentary Film

Pushkin House invites to join an evening of short documentary film screenings and discussions covering stories about women, rural communities, minorities, and conflict-affected groups in the South Caucasus.

They whisper but sometimes scream
Director: Lala Aliyeva

A short documentary film that depicts the female stories in Azerbaijan whispered and screamed to the lake. The lake has no name. People call her Pir Vir, but this is the name of the shrine located nearby. Once the lake was a feminine space. Women would collect the water, but also trust their stories. She has many of them. They whisper, but sometimes scream. Lala Aliyeva is a freelance journalist and a documentary filmmaker from Azerbaijan. She is the author of several short documentaries. “They whisper but sometimes scream” is her graduation film project from MA Visual Anthropology, at Goldsmiths University, London. Currently Lala works as a multimedia content editor & mentor in various projects, and promotes documentaries of Chai Khana, a crossborder storytelling platform covering the South Caucasus.

The Hunter Erects the City
Director: Anna Dziapshipa

Anna Dziapshipa is an art historian, film producer and co-founder of film organization Sakdoc Film. She used to head the Film Export Department at the Georgian National Film Center for five years where she was in charge of international relations, being in contact with international funds and organizations and promoting Georgian films at international festivals and markets. Anna holds a Bachelor’s degree and an MA in Art History. She has been involved in various research while working as a project manager at the Georgian Literature Museum, editing series of publications about the Georgian church painting and organizing art exhibitions. In 2009 she conducted the first Documentary Film Pitching Forum Pitch.Doc as part of Tbilisi International Film Festival. Anna also coordinates various trainings and workshops. She has produced and co-produced several documentaries.

The chronicles of Exes
Directors: Sona Simonyan, Hovhannes Ishkhanyan

Marriage is no longer the unchangeable Armenian custom that it once was. Young, urban Armenians today have far greater choices about how to live their lives than in the Soviet era. For some, staying with one person for life no longer seems relevant. But divorce, now slightly on the rise in Armenia, does not offer an easy answer, either – so, the search for new forms of relationships goes on. Filmmakers Sona Simonyan and Hovhannes Ishkhanyan met with their ex-husband and ex-fiancée to discuss the reasons for their respective break-ups and the difficulties of modern-day relationships.

Guest Speakers:
Sona Kocharyan – documentary film director and multimedia journalist.
Nino Topuridze – freelance journalist and communication officer at the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (UNFAO).