- ANNA GRIGORIAN (Armenia | Canada)
ԹԵՒԱՎՈՐ ԼԱՐԵՐ | FIBERS, 2024
short film, 00:15:28
ԹԵՒԱՎՈՐ ԼԱՐԵՐ | FIBERS is based on personal accounts of women after the 2020 Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) war. The film highlights a brief moment that took place in one of the bomb shelters in Artsakh in 2020. Director’s Statement Work on this film started in the summer of 2023 in Armenia when I began recording the personal accounts of women affected by the Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) war in 2020. Even though the initial intention was to create a record of “women’s struggles in post-war life,” the reality I faced upon arrival was far from being post-war. The war did not end with the ceasefire agreement, it simply changed forms: at that time, Azerbaijan had been keeping Artsakh under complete blockade which lasted more than 9 months. The continued military aggression after the war and the 9-month blockade of Artsakh was followed by another full-scale military attack by Azerbaijan, leading to the ethnic cleansing of Armenians from Artsakh in the autumn of 2023. Dealing with a delicate topic of trauma suffered by the people uprooted from their ancestral lands, ԹԵՒԱՎՈՐ ԼԱՐԵՐ | FIBERS highlights a brief moment that took place in one of the bomb shelters of Artsakh in 2020. The film speaks about the courage of finding strength during dark times, the communal resilience, the daily care for the community that is traditionally on the women’s shoulders and continues even under bombardment. Informed and affected by some 18 personal accounts recorded in the summer of 2023, the film’s voiceover is mainly composed of excerpts from the personal account of Lida Mkrtchyan and ends with words from Silva Khnkanosyan.
Preview/Trailer: https://vimeo.com/990499133/d84ca7badb
Credits
Making zhengyalov bread*
Lida Mkrtchyan
Voice
Lida Mkrtchyan (herself)
Silva Khnkanosyan (herself)
Mentioned in the film
Shushi, Stepanakert – cities in Artsakh, Nagorno-Karabakh
Goris, Yerevan – cities in Armenia
* zhengyalov bread-a flatbread stuffed with a variety of greens, traditional to Syunik, Armenia and Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh)
Special thanks to Susanna Gyulamiryan, Arsen Abrahamyan, Shushanna Tevanyan, CSNLab
Armenian speech-to-text transcription: Armen Ohanyan
Armenian to English translation: Anna Grigorian
English proofreading: Ashod Nakashian
Concept, footage, montage, sound design: Anna Grigorian
Film by Anna Grigorian
Support acknowledgement
Canada Council for the Arts, Art and Cultural Studies Laboratory (ACSL-Armenia)
annangrigorian@gmail.com
https://annagrigorian.art
https://vimeo.com/annagrigorian
https://filmfreeway.com/annagrigorian