On November 20, the AGBU Performing Arts Department and the AGBU Young Professionals of Greater New York (YPGNY) held a film screening entitled 6 Short Films at the Amphitheater at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center at Lincoln Center. The sold-out event featured films by six recipients of the AGBU Performing Arts Fellowship.

The films included The Frame by Ophelia Harutyunyan, Adrift by Alik Barsoumian, They Were Afraid Of Us by Jesse Soursourian, After Water There Is Sand by Saro Varjabedian, Caregivers by Viktorya Aleksanyan and The Last Film by Martiros Vartanov. Ophelia Harutyunyan, a filmmaker based in New York and Armenia, presented a short film about acceptance and letting go: “Being born and raised in Armenia, I couldn’t even dream about studying at an institution like Columbia. Even when I got the acceptance letter, I still wasn’t sure I could find enough money to attend the school. The AGBU Performing Arts Fellowship helped me realize my dream and get where I am right now. It is a great pleasure to present one of the first films I made at Columbia at the great Lincoln Center.”

The screening was followed by a question and answer session moderated by actor John Joseph Gallagher, best known for his work in Meet the Parents, Darjeeling Limited and Law and Order. In his opening remarks, Gallagher commented on the essence of filmmaking: “You can never lose when you express the honesty of your heart. And if you spend your life expressing the honesty of your heart, it really doesn’t matter what Universal Studios thinks of you. It matters what you think of you. If you find that vision, and you live honestly inside that poetry, and do your best to share that with the world, you cannot lose.”

The AGBU Performing Arts Department (PAD) introduces Armenian art to diverse audiences and connects young Armenian artists worldwide: “All these years we have been showcasing the musicians who have received the AGBU Performing Arts Fellowships in music, but we also have filmmakers who receive these same grants, so we decided we need to not only support, but promote their work in a non-Armenian venue,” said Hayk Arsenyan, director of the AGBU Performing Arts Department.