1489

With director Shoghakat Vardanyan in person 

Dir. Shoghakat Vardanyan. Armenia. 2023, 76 mins. DCP. In Armenian and Russian with English subtitles. When a longstanding territorial conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan flared up again in September 2020, a 21-year-old student and musician named Soghomon Vardanyan was thrust into battle. Seven days into the war he went missing, his case assigned the clerical number 1489. Picking up a camera to document her family’s attempts at locating her brother, Shoghakat Vardanyan films things we don’t often see: the struggles, emotions, and Kafkaesque runarounds when missing soldiers and their families are reduced to a statistic. We also are privileged to see this first-time director become a filmmaker before our eyes, making refined choices about camera placement and movement, alternating between diaristic first-person and frank observation, and turning what might otherwise be experienced as voyeuristic into a cinematic phenomenon of essential witnessing. Grand Jury Prize, International Competition, 2023 International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam. New York premiere 

Tickets: $15 / $11 senior and students / $9 youth (ages 3–17) / discounted for MoMI members ($7–$11). There is a $1.50 transaction fee per ticket for all online purchases. The cost of admission may be applied toward a same-day purchase of a membership. 

Order tickets. Please pick up tickets at the Museum’s admissions desk upon arrival. All seating is general admission. 

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About the filmmaker:

Shoghakat Vardanyan comes from a family of artists. She is a professional musician and has never studied filmmaking. 1489 is her debut documentary film, which won the Best Film and FIPRESCI Awards at IDFA 2023 in International Competition. For 1489 she was awarded the Armenian Prime Minister’s Award (which she refused because she believes the film should not have any political connections) in 2021; as well as the Work in Progress Grand Prix during the Golden Apricot Film Festival in 2022.