Arpa International Film Festival announces its schedule of screenings starting November 13 and concluding with its Awards Ceremony on November 15, at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood. For three days, film fans will journey through the festival’s diverse lineup of features, documentaries, and short that will stir your soul, touch your heart, make you laugh, and inspire change.
Celebrating its 18th year, Arpa International Film Festival is one of the oldest international films festivals for independent cinema in Hollywood. Sylvia Minassian, Arpa’s festival founder shared, “Each year brings us amazingly talented filmmakers who truly dedicate their lives to creating wonderful stories that inspire us and our audiences –– ultimately engendering a wonderful cinematic art form.”
Experiencing the entire weekend-long film festival will be an exploration into independent cinema through the creative minds of innovative filmmakers from 22 countries. The selected films cover such topics as: the hustle and struggle of Hollywood animal agents in Hazel & Louis: Animal Agents; to a schoolteacher who after revealing that she and three other women were raped is then ostracized for dishonoring the women’s husbands in Three Windows and a Hanging; to a documentary about a Chinese-American son returning to rural China with his father and their emotional journey reliving the dad’s harrowing escape from China in My Life In China.
All films will be screened in one of two theaters: the Rigler Theatre (main theater) or the Spielberg Theatre. “The Egyptian is such a great venue for us because the theater has two screens. Throughout the weekend, we can play films simultaneously and fit in more films than a typical festival. Further, it allows for a larger number of filmmakers to be on the premises at the same time, which enhances their networking opportunities and makes it easier for media to secure multiple interviews,” said Michael Ashjian, Arpa International Film Festival Executive Director.
Closing night of the festival we will be screening The Sandwich Island Man (L’Homme de I’lle Sandwich) by film writer-director, Lévon Minasian, whose notable shorts have been selected and screened in over 80 festivals around the world. Arpa International Film Festival’s awards ceremony will begin immediately following Minasian’s short film.
November 13 Opening Night at 8 p.m.
Feature film, Lost Birds, will open the 18th Annual Arpa International Film Festival competition. Lost Birds, an Anatolian fairytale, is the first film shot in Turkey to depict the tragedy of 1915 on the 100th anniversary of the 1915 Armenian exile. At the core of this heartwarming film is a story of love and family.
November 14 Screenings
November 15 Screenings and Awards Ceremony
Written by Sharon Swainson
Communications & Content Development
2015 Arpa International Film Festival