Our director, Tatevik Ayvazyan sits in conversation with Oksana Mirzoyan, screenwriter, producer and director. The two friends revisit Oksana’s childhood: fleeing her hometown, Baku, at the age of 4, to witnessing Armenia’s earthquake, Russia’s breadlines and discrimination from all sides. Arts, music and culture never ceased to amaze Oksana from a young age, and now after settling in Detroit, she encapsulates her lived experiences subtly, and so beautifully, in her range of incredibly touching films.
Oksana Mirzyoan (born in Azerbaijan, 1984) is an Armenian-American artist focused on narrative filmmaking as a writer/director/producer. Mirzoyan’s films have shown and been awarded internationally at festivals such as Clermont-Ferrand, Camerimage and Locarno. Her short “140 Drams" was an honoree of the Cinematographer’s Guild of America and won Best Short Film at Izmir Film Festival. Mirzoyan is based in Detroit where she is a Kresge Art Fellow and the Detroit Institute of Arts held a solo exhibition of her narrative shorts “140 Drams,” Sonnet” and “Susanna.” Currently she is working on her first feature, “Abysm" which explores the ongoing conflict in Nagorno-Karabagh in the South Caucasus.
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