Armenians in Film at Fresno State

Anahid Yahjian is an independent writer, director, and producer of experimental, documentary, and narrative cinema. Her work is driven by questioning and pursuit: of history, of power, of memory, of liminality, of the surreal and the sublime. She produced the internationally awarded narrative short 140 Drams (Camerimage, Clermont-Ferrand 2013), laid the creative groundwork for the feature documentary Spiral (IDFA Bertha Fund 2015, Golden Apricot 2017) and shot and directed the viral digital documentary LEVON: A Wondrous Life (2013). Since returning to Los Angeles, she shot and directed the experimental cine-triptych, Corpus Callosum (2014-2016) and directed the narrative science-fiction short Transmission (BFI Flare, Vancouver QFF 2019). She was later commissioned by the City of Glendale’s ReflectSpace gallery to create the docu-memoir Hishé (2021). When not creating her own work, she directs branded content and music videos for clients such as AMC Networks, Amazon Music, and Joyful Noise Recordings. Recently, she also supervised postproduction on televised series and digital content for A24, Netflix, Vice, and Spotify.

Hasmik was born in Yerevan, Armenia, and moved to St. Petersburg, Russia with her family at the age of 11. After graduating from the medical faculty of St. Petersburg State University, she pursued her passion for filmmaking and was accepted into the directing department of Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography (VGIK), studying under the guidance of Alexander and Vladimir Kott and Anna Fenchenko. During her time at VGIK, Hasmik directed three films - "Apnea" (2019), "Side by side" (2021), and "Harisa" (2022) - all of which received critical acclaim and won awards at various student film festivals. Her latest film, "250km," began as a student project but quickly grew into a fully independent production.

Arnaud Khayadjanian is a self-taught author-director – from south of France by birth, Armenian by origins and Parisian by adoption. He has several short films to his credit including “DEAF HEARTS”, broadcasted on Arte, in 2017. Winner of numerous writing residencies, Arnaud also directed “STONY PATHS”, in 2015, a documentary on his ancestors who survived the genocide. And “WE ARE OUR MOUNTAINS”, documentary about people from Artsakh. Currently, he is developing feature film projects, as well as a series entitled “FUTURESELF”, written with Vincent Germain.

Emily Mkrtichian is a filmmaker, multimedia artist, and interdisciplinary creative collaborator. Her evolving artistic practice reflects her upbringing in a displaced, diasporic family, and centers the decolonized narratives of women, especially from the SWANA region, as well as a deep commitment to the healing power of relational, ethical, collaborative storytelling. Emily has been a Flaherty Seminar Fellow, a LA Arts Activation Fund recipient, A Locarno Film Festival development grant winner, a UnionDocs Summer Lab Fellow, and participated in the Torino Film Creative Producing Lab. She is currently working on her first feature documentary film There Was, There Was Not, which has been supported by the Sundance Institute Documentary Fund, the International Documentary Association Enterprise Fund, Chicken & Egg Pictures, and the HotDocs Cross Currents Fund.

Director Garo Berberian was born in Chiswick, London and graduated from Berkshire School of Art and Design with a merit in Photography, also winning Fuji's student street photography award.

Garo then moved into Broadcast Television, rising up through the ranks as an editor, director and executive producer, working on numerous award winning television, documentary, commercial and hard hitting viral campaigns for the NHS.

Garo's first short film - "Return of the Tyke", was the winner of the Best Short Audience award at the 2014 ARPA film festival in Los Angeles. His new film, "Taniel" looks at the last months of poet Taniel Varoujan's life, who was murdered in the Armenian Genocide of 1915. The film's narrative is heard in poetry and seen through Film Noir images. Shot in Armenia and the UK, the film is voiced by actor Sean Bean, with a soundtrack featuring Philip Glass, Michael Nyman and Tigran Hamasyan.

Artur Saribekyan was born in 1987 in Armenia and graduated from the Directing department of the Yerevan Institute of Theater and Cinema in 2009. He has extensive experience in the film industry, having worked as a director's assistant on full-length feature films such as "Chnchik" and "Moskvich, my love." Artur has also created documentaries and TV series for Armenian Public Television and directed plays at various theaters in Armenia. In 2022, he wrote and directed the animated film "From the Border." Currently, Artur is in the process of developing his latest project, a feature film entitled "Saro."