Epress.am News from Armenia
The third annual alternative media festival “Rusty Pumpkin” kicked off at the Mkhitar Sebastatsi educational complex Media Center yesterday. As previously reported, the two-day festival screened films at 6 pm yesterday and it will continue film screenings today beginning at 6 pm.
Mkhitar Sebastatsi principal Ashot Bleyan, in his opening remarks, welcomed participants and organizer Sona Abgaryan and stressed the importance of media’s entry into the educational sector.
Speaking to Epress.am, Abgaryan, comparing Rusty Pumpkin and the more well-known Golden Apricot Yerevan International Film Festival, said the glamor and official position in Armenian reality doesn’t allow everyone to express themselves.
“In our case, if we take the political aspect, we don’t place restrictions, but I’m convinced that in many places they would simply be prohibited,” she said, referring to the works presented in the festival.
In her opinion, Rusty Pumpkin will create an alternative space in which will include people of different professions. There is much more interest in the festival this year, Abgaryan continued, and the number of people present at the opening testifies to this fact.
The film opened with a short film titled “Help Syu’s mom” which describes the situation of one woman with breast cancer in Armenia, and a film on Davit Kareyan, the artist who died suddenly in January of this year when a car ran him over in the streets of Yerevan.
“It’s the first time that we include social issues of public interest in the festival, but I think, in the future, we will develop this direction further. As for Kareyan, we, artists, decided to once again emphasize that we always remember him, that he is with us,” said the festival organizer.
Abgaryan noted that the Rusty Pumpkin festival will always defend alternative thought: there will be no restrictions, pressure, critique, nor any formal (for show) or philistine (bourgeois) elements. “Since we are in favor of freedom, we are going to fight for freedom.”
Ashot Bleyan, speaking to Epress.am, likewise stressed the free and democratic nature of Rusty Pumpkin.
“Is it possible to participate in the Golden Apricot with the most common instrument? No. The requirements are different,” he said.
Bleyan also noted that there’s nothing similar between the Rusty Pumpkin and Golden Apricot festivals, and if Rusty Pumpkin carries a certain message in it, in any case, “the Golden Apricot is ours, our happiness.”
“It’s very good that Golden Apricot started from zero; it established and it constantly acquires fame and recognition, and that’s good for all of us,” he said.
Bleyan likewise emphasized that the festival held at the educational complex is an alternative and provides the opportunity for all to express themselves.
“And if years later the students at our educational complex’ film school are represented in the Golden Apricot, it will be very good; it will nourish the Golden Apricot. The response of Golden Apricot organizers is very important. It’s not good that they’re not responding; it’s not good that they don’t come. They have to come, encourage. While our festival participants actively participate in the Golden Apricot, as, for example, Susan Amujanyan, who is the Golden Apricot’s Director of Photography,” he said.