In collaboration with the Freer Gallery of Art, Post-Classical Ensemble, the Embassy of Armenia, and the National Cinema Center of Armenia, this cycle of short and feature-length films is presented as part of a celebration of Armenian music, art, and history occurring simultaneously at several Washington institutions. Special thanks to the Embassy of Armenia and Post-Classical Ensemble.
March 1, 2020 at 2:00 p.m.
Freer Gallery of Art
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Hamo Bek-Nazaryan is known as the father of Armenian cinema — he stands with Sergei Eisenstein, Vsevolod Pudovkin, and Alexander Dovzhenko in the history of film. He was a popular actor in in the history of film. He was a popular actor in prerevolutionary Russian film as well as a founder of the Hayfilm (Armenfilm) studio in Yerevan. His vivid late 1930s sound film Zangezur is a chronicle of the 1920s civil war in Armenia, depicting efforts by the Bolsheviks in the mountainous Zangezur region to defeat the Dashnaks, the region’s counterrevolutionary rulers. Zangezur was a trendsetter for the Armenian revolutionary drama, and the soundtrack by Aram Khachaturian features folkloric songs, a march, and two beautifully lyrical interludes. (Hamo Bek-Nazaryan, 1938, subtitles, 89 minutes)
https://www.nga.gov/calendar/film-programs/armenian-odyssey.html