MY ARMENIAN PHANTOMS (MES FANTÔMES ARMÉNIENS) Documentary

U.S. Premiere

Screening to be followed by a conversation with director, screenwriter and producer Tamara Stepanyan.

Personal memoirs and collective cinematic nostalgia converge in Tamara Stepanyan’s tender love letter to her late father and a faded past of Soviet Armenia. Triggered by the sudden passing of her father — distinguished Armenian actor Vigen Stepanyan — and recalling those early days living in her homeland, Stepanyan, now based in Europe, begins an intimate dialogue with all the ghosts of her past. From Sergei Parajanov’s influence to Frunze Dovlatyan’s poetry, from childhood memories watching her father on the TV to interviews with her family, Stepanyan delicately reassembles a tableau of private and collective histories through the interwoven montage of home videos and Soviet era Armenian film archive, while also considering her place as a woman filmmaker in this storied legacy of men. A treasured excavation of a bygone era, MY ARMENIAN PHANTOMS conjures the transcending, universal dreams of diaspora. –Anna Li