South Caucasus Documentary Film Festival

South Caucasus
Integration:
Alternative
Start

THE «NATIONALITY - HUMAN» - will screen recent documentary films from different parts of the world in various cities and regions of the South Caucasus. Believing that the world is one and the language of cinema knows no borders, we think viewers in the Caucasus will be able to see themselves in the fates of people from other parts of the world, in their struggles for peace and justice. This is the first festival of its kind in the South Caucasus !

THE «NATIONALITY - HUMAN» - is non-competitive film festival. In our jury there are young film-makers, film critics and NGO activists from the South Caucasus, Germany and the Czech Republic. They have selected six recent documentaries of international reputation (from Israel, former Yugoslavia, France and the United States). Of these they composed a three-day programme.

THE «NATIONALITY - HUMAN» - is a festival “on wheels” – we will come to you with our mobile-cinema, bringing all the technical equipment needed for screening! (If we are unable to reach you by our cinemabus, we will find different means of transportation.)

■ «NATIONALITY HUMAN» - FILMS

Festival sponsors in South Caucasus: Heinrich Boell Foundation South Caucasus office, South Caucasus foundations of Open Society Institute’s (OSI) network, Eurasia Partnership Foundation (Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia), the Embassy of Switzerland in Georgia

«NATIONALITY - HUMAN», ARMENIA, SEPTEMBER 2008

FESTIVAL was given birth to by a few miraculous people and those who believed them and stood by them.

FESTIVAL became a beginning of a path – a rocky and a difficult one, but in the same time a right and a humane one.

FESTIVAL became a symbol of South Caucasus relativity against all conflicts.

FESTIVAL united two important ideas: Peace and Human Rights.

WE remain un-free in South Caucasus, because we don’t tie peace and freedom between one another, and among that, peace and freedom are inseparable. Only with respect to individual rights and freedoms it’s possible to achieve peace in Caucasus.

WE are a unified region, and we are supposed to exchange with our concerns, pain, grief, speak, try to tell each other about what we feel, about what we understood and what we didn’t. Because conflicts start when we stop talking to each other. They start from proud silence filled with the belief that we know more than our neighbors.

A CITIZEN must become the active face of the festival. During the process of festival discussions, the demand in the peace, the demand which is conserved within each of our families, will be brought out into an open square and will be voiced on that square through an outsider citizen, a citizen which is the target of a conflict. We must form our social request for peace, and turn government and political officials into the performers of that order.

HERE our conversation has begun and let it continue.

Georgi Vanyan - director
Luiza Poghosyan - reporter
Irakli Chikhladze - journalist

South Caucasian Documentary Film Festival of Peace and Human Rights in Armenia implementing by Caucasus Center of Peace-Making Initiatives with support of Eurasia partnership foundation - Armenia and the American People through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

MINUTES OF DISCUSSIONS

Noyemberyan

■ SHEEPS ON THE URBAN BACKGROUND

Any type of war is a provocation that’s always brought on by skinheads of different suites. It’s a known fact that during war it’s not the entire nation that fights. War cultivates all existing problems and with every war these contradictions deepen more and more.

Vanadzor

■ SENSITIVE QUESTIONS

When I was watching how all children even Jewish kids were doing the Muslim praying ritual during the celebration of Ramadan, I asked my friend if she could imagine her child performing a Muslim ritual. It’s very difficult to imagine. Even though I myself am atheist there is no real reason for me to be worried… but at some point I did not feel like myself, I felt how bad what they were doing was.

Gyumri

■ THE SENSE OF MEASURE

What’s the matter, they didn’t have negotiations in 1915 with the Turks, and there weren’t any smart people involved in those negotiations? And if dialogue is such a good thing why do we call for other countries to get involved in the solutions of our conflicts?

Yerevan

■ FESTIVAL GIVEN BIRTH TO BY A FEW MIRACULOUS PEOPLE AND THOSE WHO BELIEVED THEM (OPENING)

We must form our social request for peace, and turn government and political officials into the performers of that order.

■ ARMENIA - AZERBAIJAN: SPECULATIONS AND DIALOGUE, WHERE DOES THE LINE OF SEPARATION PASS?

I want to say that if Armenian and Azerbaijanian must live together, they need to learn Japanese. And I’m saying this as a linguistics doctor. Armenians and Azerbaijanians can find a common language only after they have learned Japanese.

■ WE AND OTHERS

I think we have a big demand for relations with other nationalities, because we are an old nation. We have closed ourselves from the outside world to the point where our ideology has become old as well it literally became decrepit – meaning it lost its content and only the form remains.

■ ARMENIA - GEORGIA: PREDESTINED CHALLENGES

I don’t want for a wrong opinion to be formed that Georgians are worse for us than Azerbaijanis. No one is worse for us than Azerbaijanis.

Yeghegnadzor

■ NOT BAD FOR A START

I liked the childish point of view in the festival. Only child like thinking is able to successfully harmonize patriotism and peacefulness, unfortunately it doesn’t exist in an adult life in which people fight wars. In an adult life – it’s a dark spot.

■ BUT WHO STARTED THE WAR?

I liked the childish point of view in the festival. Only child like thinking is able to successfully harmonize patriotism and peacefulness, unfortunately it doesn’t exist in an adult life in which people fight wars. In an adult life – it’s a dark spot.

REVIEWS

■ 10 JUSTS AND 1 CRAZY MAN

As I figured out someone really hurt his feelings in the past and those people were Russians by nationality. The presence of the Georgian journalists inspired him to express everything that had collected in him all this time.

■ WE HAVE BEEN GEORGIA FOR 700 YEARS ...

When asked about the reaction of the local dwellers to the August war between Georgia and Russia, they answered, “The prices of the petrol radically increased”… And then we started clearing up who is right and who is guilty.

■ THE BELT BUCKLE OF AN ARMENIAN PATRIOT

They beautifully played good cop bad cop. One of them constantly kept disagreeing with the audience and their views. The second one spoke of peacemaking ideas and called to a unified world fraternity. Weather it was voluntary or not but the audience got in to the game. This discussion was particularly active and entertaining.

■ THE FACE OF FRUNZIC’S STATUE IS TIRED AND SAD

“This question concerns me very much”, - she told about her feelings. – “ There are so many virgins in Caucasus!” The teachers as if by a command became jumpy and began to pay attention to the student’s reactions. The boys had cunning smiles and the girls turned red.

■ THE FACTUAL OPENING

The independent television channel released the program in a “decolletage” format. In the block where the questions were answered, on the subject of whose fault is the august war in Georgia, any thing that was mentioned about the “third side” that was interested in the war, were removed.

■ NOWADAYS THE BRIDGE ONLY DECORATES THE SCENERY

He was brutally beaten and his shoulder was damaged. As a result he underwent several serious operations, but his arm still doesn’t work very well... And his answer to the question weather he is prepared to take part in future political actions of the opposition, Edward repeated: «I simply love freedom very much…»

INTERVIEWS

■ I AM SATISFIED WITH MY TRIP TO ARMENIA

When comparing Georgian and Armenian nationalists I concluded that a Georgian nationalist is like the thief from the film “12 chairs” who felt ashamed to steal, but yet he could not but steal. An Armenian nationalist, on the contrary, is very simple-minded and is amazed sincerely when he is said that it is a shame.

■ EVERYTHING BEGAN ON THE MORNING OF AUGUST 8

They said that if we didn’t run all of us would have been alive. They bandaged our wounds and took us to the hospital themselves.

■ THERE IS ALWAYS A PURPOSE TO SORT OUT WHAT HAPPENED

Who and how is sorting it out, that’s a different story. As I am fully convinced, using August for purposes of propaganda is simply a crime. It’s enough that people’s lives were taken or ruined and it still remains a mystery as to why.

■ THE FESTIVAL HAS AN ACTUAL IDEA

One thing made a memorable impression on me, that was the young man who came up to us and told us that disregarding the financial difficulties that him and his family are expecting he can’t stand a side and asked to donate some money to the refugees.

■ THE ENEMY IMAGE IS LIVING INSIDE OF ME. BUT I DON’T WANT THE ENEMY IMAGE TO LIVE INSIDE OF MY SON

To better understand the conflict situation, one should live in the environment about which you are shooting a film. It is not all the same to me who my neighbour is: a Chinese or a Georgian! I will never understand a Chinese, but I will understand a Georgian.

■ AN IMITATION OF THE FREEDOM OF SPEECH IS TAKING PLACE IN ARMENIA

It is common knowledge that Armenia is a small and poor country. It has nothing to lose. It has always been beneficial for the authorities for Armenia to become a testing area.

■ EITHER ARMENIA HAS TO FOLLOW RUSSIA OR RUSSIA WILL HAVE TO GO AGAINST ARMENIA

It is basically the August events in Georgia that were discussed. The opinions of most of the participants coincided that Russia’s actions were very bad, while Georgia’s actions were rather silly.

■ MASS MEDIA OF ARMENIA ARE GRIEVING ABOUT FREEDOM

Yes, during the broadcasting of the news in Georgia a lot of the Armenian mass media used the production of Russian television channels mostly ORT and RTR.

■ SAHAKASHVILI, ALIYEV, AND SARGSYAN ARE MAKING THE DECISIONS, AS FOR PUTIN, HE IS FISHING IN THE MUDDY WATERS OF SOUTH CAUCASUS

I felt everything that happened in Georgia through me. Whenever I saw a report on Russian TV stations I understood the subliminal message: «Here are the Barbarians of Caucasus – and we are the ones who are saving them from themselves».

IN RUSSIAN

SOUTH CAUCASUS DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL OF PEACE AND HUMAN RIGHTS

«NATIONALITY - HUMAN», ARMENIA, SEPTEMBER 2008

SOUTH CAUCASUS DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL
OF PEACE AND HUMAN RIGHTS