Emily Mkrtichian’s feature documentary debut There Was, There Was Not follows four women living in Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed conflict zone between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
In her film, she offers an intimate portrait of the four Armenian women caught on the brink and in the aftermath of a surprise invasion of Artsakh, as they resist the erasure of their homeland amidst renewed conflict. Featured in the documentary are Siranush Sargsyan, Svetlana Harutunyan, Gayane Hambardzumyan, and Sosè Balasanyan as its main subjects.
There Was, There Was Not made its world premiere at True/False, going on screen at other festivals, including DOC NYC and notably winning both the Audience Award and First Honorable Mention Jury Award in the International Competition at Argentina’s Mar del Plata International Film Festival, as well as the FIPRESCI International Film Critics’ Award at Armenia’s Golden Apricot Film Festival.
The film is slated for a U.S. theatrical release by Suncatcher Productions, kicking off on October 10th with a week-long run in New York’s DCTV Firehouse Cinema, followed by Los Angeles’ Leammle Glendale Theater starting October 17th, and other cities to be announced. Watermelon Pictures will release the film across all digital platforms.
In 2018, Emily Mkrtichian initially set out to make a film about the daily lives and hopes of women in Artsakh – an autonomous, disputed ethnically Armenian territory between Azerbaijan and Armenia with an enduring legacy of conflict. She followed a minesweeper, an aspiring politician, a women’s rights activist, and a judo champion as they navigated a precarious peace while building their lives and communities. In 2020, when Azerbaijan launched a surprise attack and war broke out again, Mkrtichian continued filming as shelling began around her, witnessing her subjects’ worlds and dreams immediately transform. The documentary evolved from an observational meditation on strength into an urgent portrayal of survival, capturing the personal and cultural impacts of a homeland at risk of loss, and the power of story to keep it alive.
Filmmaker Emily Mkrtichian said: “I’m excited and honored to be working with Watermelon Pictures and Suncatcher Productions to bring There Was, There Was Not to U.S. audiences. Their intentional curation of films that center stories of women and unheard voices as sources of creative resistance makes them incredible champions of this film – a poetic, mythic record of women experiencing the loss of their homeland as well as the creativity and resilience they offer in the face of it. We look forward to bringing this unique story to the world.”
There Was, There Was Not was directed, produced, and shot by Emily Mkrtichian. It was produced by Brock Williams (On Her Shoulders, It’s Only Life After All, The Body Politic), with Alexandria Bombach (On Her Shoulders, It’s Only Life After All) serving as an editor and executive producer, and D.D. Wigley (Sam Now) serving as executive producer.
See the trailer above.
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