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APRICOT TREE UJAN INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL (ATIEFF)
Established in 2015 by Filmadaran Film Culture Development NGO, Apricot Tree (ATIEFF) is a documentary film festival that takes place annually in August in the Armenian village of Ujan. Not only do selected participants get to see their films projected on the big screen in Ujan’s park under the open sky, but more importantly they live among the villagers in their houses, share bread and watch films with them, while getting to experience Armenian culture first-hand.
The festival organizers strongly believe that only by coming into contact with the others do we grasp ourselves. By grasping ourselves we seek to understand and get to know the others and by understanding, we start to sympathize with them. In contrast, the unknown and the unclear generate fear, distrust, and enmity. Understanding the life, manners and traditions, struggles and experiences of other nations, tribes, and social and religious groups – this is what “Apricot Tree” calls for and aspires to. And nothing can realize that aspiration better and more effective, than the week-long coexistence in the same space of people from various parts of the world and also “documentary” cinema, which lets the audience not only see but also sympathize with the reality of the screen.
The idea to organize a village film festival came from the desire to decentralize the cultural life in Armenia, where the vast majority of cultural events take place in the capital city of Yerevan and the rural population is basically devoid of opportunities of coming into contact with international and even local art. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, villages were mostly ignored by cultural policy-makers for 3 decades. Apricot Tree, which attracts to its screenings not only the people of Ujan, but also populations of nearby villages, has the aim of righting this wrong and making the rural population an active and integral part of modern Armenian cultural life.
The authentic setting of the village is perfect for film professionals to discover a new reality from within and to share ideas in a free and friendly environment, resulting in a true intercultural dialogue.
The festival format has already had its fruits. The Grand Prize winner of the festival’s 2017 edition Shahram Badakhshan Mehr was enchanted by the village atmosphere and his host family, which led him to return to Ujan in 2019 and shoot a feature-length Iranian-Armenian coproduction docudrama, which will have its world premiere as the opening film of the 7th Apricot Tree Ujan International Documentary Film Festival on August 22.
The festival screens documentary films of all genres, including ethnographic, anthropological, experimental and even animated. Non-competition programs include tributes to renowned filmmakers and special screenings. In total, the festival screens around 30 films every year.
The awards, given out by the festival, are traditional Armenian rugs, specially made for this occasion, often with the participation of the students of the Ujan Carpet Weaving Group․, The latter was established in 2018 by the Folk Arts Hub Foundation with the suggestion of Filmadaran NGO. The village of Ujan also has a music school, a painting group, and a folk song and dance ensemble, that actively take part in festival events.
In 2019. the festival also established the Ujan Film School, where young Ujanians 12-15 years of age learn to develop their artistic ideas and make their own short documentary films with various equipment and especially their mobile phones. The films are then screened at the closing ceremony of the festival.