There's a new Armenia-themed movie on the horizon, so keep your eyes open!
"Priestess,' the latest film shot by one of the leading Armenian film directors, Vigen Chaldranian, will be premiered on January 25 in Chinese Theater cinema house in Glendale, California, USA. The film will be screened also by cinema houses in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York.I'm sure this movie will be great, but ALL Armenian movies shown in the U.S. do poorly. Why? Because they lack distribution. It costs money, sure, but it also guarantees that more than 25 people see such an epic work. Screamers was only on a handful of screens and by the time I went to see it, they had already taken it off.
...Chaldranian said the main idea behind this film was to present Armenia as the first nation to convert to Christianity and adopt it as their national faith. The film was first shown in Yerevan last October. Chaldranian said the main source of information for the film was the 'History of Armenia' by a 5-century Armenian historian Agatangeghos.
Chaldranian said 600 costumes were made specially for this film, which is the first large-scale Armenian film in the last decades.
Don't get me wrong, I applaud Armenians for doing such terrific movies, but they will discourage others from doing similar movies because the financial incentives are not there. And whether you like it or not, those incentives largely drive studios and distributors to make even more movies of the sort. A bit of a Catch-22, I suppose.
Source: ArmenPress
1 comment:
My name is Mel Metcalfe III, I was born and raised 'on Hollywood,' a third generation film maker. As one of the producers of Vigen Chaldranian's film "The Priestess," thank you for writing about our movie - blogs like yours will significantly help Armenian films get distribution.
This film is very important, not only for the Armenian community, but to anyone fascinated with epic film making...this is Vigen Chaldranian's tour de force. I tell you, this is not your mother and fathers' religious film - this is a story about a woman's journey of honor, passion and loss...who just also happens to be a Pagan Priestess and a catalyst to Armenia becoming the first Christian nation.
"The Priestess" is making it's U.S. debut screening at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, Hollywood, Jan 25th, 2007 @7:00pm.
For more film, screening and ticket information and to view the trailer, please visit the official "The Priestess" Movie website:
http://www.thepriestessmovie.com/
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