Khrimian Lyceum – January 23

Shirleyann Kaladjian (who plays Nina in “Hove”) and I had the opportunity to show the film and discuss it at St. Vartan’s Saturday school. Specifically, we were screening it for the Khrimian Lyceum at St. Vartan’s which was comprised of students 12-18 years of age.

I am always a little nervous in the age of video games about screening a film with no explosions for a student audience, a film that has none of the blockbuster type appeal that we are constantly told is all that America’s youth are interested in. And each time this happens I have been pleasantly surprised. If anything, the student groups I have screened it for have been more perceptive, picked up on more of the visual storylines, metaphors and subtleties than the adult audiences. This was definitely true of this group. They were extremely engaged. The questions were amazing, the observations astute. It was a great time, and again, one of those events where we could have kept going except for the fact that we ran out of time. Thank you so much to Gilda Kupelian for inviting us and arranging the whole thing.

It was also very gratifying to have a number of the students follow up and ask whether they might show the film in a class of theirs or use it in an upcoming report on their cultural history, etc. In addition, one student apparently talked about it with enough enthusiasm to his parents that they then suggested it be presented at their church – which will lead us to the next blog about the presentation at Holy Martyrs Armenian Church in Bayside, NY!