The following announcement came from the Watertown Library:
Internationally celebrated filmmaker Nigol Bezjian joins the Watertown Free Public Library for a special screening and discussion of two of his short films, Roads Full of Apricots (35 minutes, 2001) and Me, Water, Life (10 minutes, 2017). The event will be held at the library at 123 Main Street on Thursday, September 12, 2024 at 7 p.m.
Watertown resident Bezjian was born in Aleppo, Syria and grew up in Beirut, Lebanon before moving to the United States. He studied filmmaking at the New York School of Visual Arts (BFA in cinema) and UCLA School of Film, Theatre and Television (MFA in film producing, writing and directing). He has produced celebrated broadcast television programs throughout the Middle East, made numerous films and won awards from several prestigious international film festivals. His masterful storytelling looks closely at the lives of displaced peoples, migrants and refugees.
About Roads Full of Apricots
Addressing questions of cultural identity amidst tragic historical circumstances, this documentary relates the filmmaker’s personal experience of being displaced from his civil war-torn country to a more universal exploration of memory. Using archival images, Roads Full of Apricots is a tribute to history, films, literature and the inner experience of nostalgia.
About Me, Water, Life
The film is a poetic journey into the world of Syrian refugees in Lebanon and their dire situation dealing with water in their everyday life, hygiene, sewers, agriculture and more. As “water” is life, and “life” is a being, when one cannot find water, a person is unable to declare “me.” The film consists of images and sounds capturing various moments in the daily life of refugee camps or settlements composed of unfinished structures for human use. It was co-produced with Art for the World and with support from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).