Qumra master Atom Egoyan has expressed his desire for a new “wave” of Armenian filmmakers and encouraged international projects to consider the region for post-production.
Speaking to Screen following his Qumra masterclass at the Doha incubator, Egoyan – who is Canadian, born in Egypt and of Armenian heritage – described Armenia as “an extraordinarily resilient, stubborn country” with “a rich cinema history”.
“I’m nothing but positive about the ability to make films in Armenia,” said Egoyan, who did acknowledge “political instability” following the Azerbaijani military offensive in the disputed Artsakh region on September 19 and 20 last year, which has been classified as a second Armenian genocide by the inaugural prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.
“There’s a group of filmmakers that emerge at a certain point, and it’s easy to categorise them as a school or a wave,” said Egoyan, who himself was part of the Toronto New Wave of the 1980s and 1990s alongside filmmakers such as Bruce McDonald, Jeremy Podeswa and Patricia Rozema.
“There are always people before that were building towards that, and people that will continue; but it’s always exciting when a number of filmmakers emerge from a particular place.”
“That certainly will happen here [in Qatar], and I’m very hopeful that in Armenia as well,” said Egoyan. “I really would encourage anyone who is in post-production to look at the possibility of doing their soundtrack work in [Armenian capital] Yerevan; I’m sure it would be much more competitive than other countries, and the quality is super-high.”
Egoyan cited Michael A. Goorjian’s Amerikatsi, which became the first Armenian submission to make the best international feature Oscar shortlist this year, as evidence of the “high level” coming from the country. “The country is on the cusp of being able to reveal its talents to the world,” he said, adding that he will attend the 20th anniversary edition of Yerevan’s Golden Apricot International Film Festival this July, where he is honorary chairman.
In his masterclass earlier on Wednesday, March 6, Egoyan called for greater awareness of the situation in Armenia, in relation to other ongoing global conflicts. “Whenever I’m asked to speak to what’s happening [elsewhere], as an Armenian I say, ‘did you know there was an ethnic cleansing of 200,000 Armenians?’ No-one has even heard of this piece of history, which is as dramatic as many other things we’re seeing,” spoke Egoyan.
“There are a lot of narratives happening; part of what we do as storytellers is to make those narratives available to other people, and not to be swayed by prevailing agendas which are suspicious.
AI
Egoyan gave a masterclass of just over two hours to a rapt industry audience in Doha, with the session hosted by Sarajevo Film Festival director and Qumra advisor Jovan Marjanovic.
As well as a thorough discussion of Egoyan’s filmography, topics that came up included the rise of artificial intelligence. “For the type of storytelling I’m doing, I don’t think AI will ever have that much of an effect,” said Egoyan. “I can try it for fun, but I know it’s not going to present the very idiosyncratic way I’m thinking about things.”
He acknowledged a “worry about people who are making their living doing more formulaic types of storytelling”, using “formulaic television” as an example. However, he also added that “AI is going to help film restoration a lot. That’s going to be a miracle, we’re going to be able to take films that are damaged and put them into a programme that can revisualise them.”
Egoyan’s latest film Seven Veils debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, going on to play as a Berlinale Special selection last month. He told Screen he has not yet settled on a next project. “I’m always writing. I’m not quite sure if any of the projects I’m writing right now will be the next film.”
Seven Veils stars Amanda Seyfried as a director of an opera production of Salome. Egoyan has directed for opera himself; and will return to the medium for his next two jobs, directing Jenufa at the Opera de Montreal and Death in Venice at the Pacific Opera Victoria.
In his masterclass he had revealed a formative love of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 1971 rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar. Egoyan later told Screen that he would love to make a musical film. “When I do the operas, I feel closer to that world,” said the director.
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