Epress.am News from Armenia
Filmmaker Adrineh Gregorian and producer Vahe Ohanyan’s project “Back to Gürün” was the winner of this year’s Armenia-Turkey Cinema Platform award.
The Armenia-Turkey Cinema Platform (ATCP), a collaboration between Anadolu Kültür in Istanbul and the Golden Apricot International Film Festival (GAIFF) in Yerevan, accepts applications for documentary films from Turkish and Armenian filmmakers each year. This year, ATCP selected 9 projects to participate in a three-day documentary workshop, which took place Jul. 11–13, during the Golden Apricot film festival. At the end of the workshop, participants pitched their ideas to the jury, with the winner being awarded $6,000 USD courtesy of the Eurasia Partnership Foundation.
The idea behind ATCP, as told to Epress.am by Adrineh Gregorian, the director of the film, is to build bridges between Turkish and Armenian filmmakers & production teams, “through not only telling stories that the other hasn’t heard, but also learning about each other through shared experiences and common stories.”
Vahe Ohanyan (pictured, left) and Adrineh Gregorian (pictured, right)
Asked how they came up with the idea for “Back to Gürün,” Gregorian describes a happenstance encounter she had the other main subject and scriptwriter for the film, an ethnic Turk from Turkey. The film, “a story about two people thought to be adversaries, discovering each other on their way to discovering their ancestral town in Anatolia, Gürün,” took root when Gregorian was in Istanbul last year and met the Turkish partner at an informal gathering. They were excited to find out that both of their ancestors were originally from the same town in Sivas Province, Gürün — however, neither Adrineh nor her Turkish colleague had ever been there. The pair decide to go on a journey to Gürün “to reconnect with a past they were not a part of but feel closely tied to.”
Gregorian is happy to say that the film will now come to fruition through the ATCP program. “What’s really great about this program is that it’s not just a platform to launch a film, but it also offers mentorship by amazing trainers — highly accomplished international filmmakers who are your support team throughout the process,” Gregorian told Epress.am on Friday.
Asked what their next steps are, the filmmaker says they will begin shooting in autumn, then work on post-production in the winter, so that the film will be ready for the spring. According to her, ATCP aims to have the films developed through this program ready in time to be screened during next year’s Istanbul International Film Festival and the Golden Apricot International Film Festival. In the meantime, Gregorian hopes to secure more funding for the film.
Gregorian also had this to say about the project she is about to embark on: “My primary goal for telling this story is to unearth the unheard voices of the families who lived peacefully side by side in the town of Gürün. It is to tell the story of both Armenian and Turkish families effected by genocide. Each human story, despite vastly contrasting experiences, has the ability to engage and educate people around the world. My experience working with film has given me a taste of this capability, and I am eager for the opportunity to explore my history alongside my Turkish colleague in making ‘Back to Gürün’.”
Photos courtesy of Adrineh Gregorian.
Update on Oct. 12, 2011: Name of Turkish partner was removed upon Adrineh Gregorian’s request.