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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
February 29, 2020 at 3:30 p.m.
Freer Gallery of Art
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
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Four Acts for Syria<\/em> is \u201can animated film created with my film partner, Waref Abu Quba, who left Syria when the war started. Many of my ideas were inspired by my grandparents\u2019 and parents\u2019 stories, who told of living in a time in which Jews, Muslims and Christians lived together in Syria \u2014 in Qameshli, in Aleppo, and in Damascus. This film, created through the Robert Bosch Stiftung prize, is an homage to the country that was home to three generations of my family \u2014 refugees of the Armenian genocide \u2014 and to the culture that has most inspired my art and aesthetic . . . with a soundtrack by Kinan Azmeh and Zulal, the Armenian a cappella trio, and a poem written and recited by Raed Wahesh.\u201d \u2014 Kevork Mourad (Kevork Mourad, 2019, 14 minutes)
Following Four Acts for Syria<\/em> is the American premiere of two restored shorts by Sergei Parajanov: Hakob Hovnatanyan<\/em> about the nineteenth century portrait painter Hovnatanyan, known as the \u201cRaphael of Tiflis\u201d (1967, 10 minutes) and Arabesques on the Pirosmani<\/em> Theme<\/em> about Georgian outsider artist Niko Pirosmani (1985, 21 minutes). (Total running time 45 minutes)<\/p>\n\n\n\n