In November in Osaka Town in Japan, there is held a small and unusual film festival “Senior Women’s Film Festival”, in which there participate either the films of women directors, who are over 60 or films, which tell about elderly women.
This year the guest of the festival was a film director from Armenia Mariam Ohanyan. She presented her 30-minute documentary film “Dissapearing Shadows of the Ancestors” with English and Japanese subtitles. The film tells about the aunt of the film director – sculptor Heriknaz Galstyan (1959-2015).
In the frameworks of the festival there took place an Armenian special evening, during which Mariam Ohanyan showed her documentary film “The Armenian Women and Politics”, which was shot in 2001. The choice of the film was conditioned by the fact that among a number of prominent Armenian women of the past there was also presented publicist, national figure, who had lived in Japan and the ambassador of the first Armenian Republic in that country Diana Aghabek Abgar.
The attendees asked Ohanyan questions about Armenia. At the end of the evening they tasted Armenian dishes.
Mariam Ohanyan is the author of dozens of documentary films, the essential part of which are about women. In 2004, she has founded “Woman” International Film Festival in Yerevan.
the material is taken from http://www.azg.am/AM/culture/2016120202
Special thanks to Artsvi Bakhchinyan for the provision of the material.
translated from Armenian into English by M.Vardanyan