Shoghakat Vardanyan isn’t a traditional filmmaker– with no prior filmmaking experience, she picked up her phone and started filming her family after her brother Soghomon went missing during the 2020 Artsakh War.
The camera focuses on her mother and father as they wait for news and updates about their son. The director wasn’t exactly sure what she was filming for or what the recording would become, but what it ultimately transpired into was a documentary called 1489, in reference to the ID number assigned to her brother.
1489 screened at the prestigious International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, winning Best Film and the FIPRESCI Award. Now, her film is a powerful document of what many Armenian families experience during the war.
Armenian Film Society spoke with director Shoghakat Vardanyan ahead of the film’s New York premiere at the Museum of the Moving Image on March 16.
Armenian Film Society: When did you decide to start filming? Did you start with a film in mind or were you simply documenting? When did this “become” a film for you?
Shoghakat Vardanyan: I started filming 12 days after my brother went missing. When I started, I didn’t have a documentary in mind as we were waiting for more news on my brother’s status. After a few days of filming, I had a terrible, mounting feeling that maybe my brother Soghomon wasn’t coming back and I started to take the filming more seriously.
AFS: The decision to document this time in your life is brave. Was there any sense that filming provided some sense of emotional distance at all from what you and your family were going through?
SV: Quite the opposite. If I didn’t film, I would’ve closed myself off in my room, under my blanket, and wouldn’t see a lot of painful things. I needed to keep myself strong to film the reality for my brother’s memory and for the memory of all martyrs and for all people with similar experiences with war.
AFS: Your father is such an expressive individual and the heart of the film in many ways. What was his initial reaction when you started filming? What was his, and your mother’s, reaction when they saw the film?
SV: During the first few days of film shooting, there were times when my parents would be conscious of the camera. My mother wouldn’t let me film her for long periods of time. As time passed, my father would get angry and asked me to stop filming. My father hasn’t seen the final film. I have talked with my mother about the editing, especially the ending of the film. I would’ve liked to finish the film with a different ending, one that focuses on my brother’s last concert, but as a filmmaker, I also knew that having such an ending would completely change the ending of the film.
AFS: What was your reaction to winning Best Film and the FIPRESCI Award at IDFA?
SV: I was crying. I felt that I had fulfilled my promise and I kept Soghomon and other martyrs' memories alive. It was very painful and sweet at the same time.
AFS: What has the response been like from the non-Armenian community?
SV: 1489 has had great response everywhere it has screened. Audiences have been reacting positively to the film and have asked thoughtful questions. I really love the Q&As, even though they can be emotional sometimes for me, as well as for the audience. Before every festival, it is scary, because I think I will see an empty auditorium, but then I see a long line and a sold out crowd.
AFS: What is your hope for everyone who sees this film? What do you hope that they will take away from this film?
SV: For everybody, but especially for Armenians in Armenia, I hope people will look at the reality. That's a very hard thing to do, but we need to go through that, otherwise it will mean that we left all the families who lost their sons and all Artsakh citizens who were ethnically cleansed in loneliness and in an oblivion, just because we choose our comfort or because we are scared. I think that seeing the reality will help us to not only survive but to become better and stronger as human beings and as a country.
