Festival

APRICOT TREE UJAN INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL (ATIEFF)

Established in 2015, Apricot Tree International Documentary Film Festival is annual event that throughout its editions has been implemented in various villages in Armenia by Filmadaran Film Culture Development NGO.
In 2024, Apricot Tree celebrates its 10th anniversary. The festival will take place August 24-31, 2024 in the Lori region of Armenia, in the villages of Debed, Dsegh and Odzun. With a diverse international program, consisting of around 35-40 feature-length and short films, the festival screens documentaries of all genres be they ethnographic, animated, anthropological, experimental, hybrids etc.
The festival will also host around 25-30 local and international participants – directors, producers and other film professionals from all around the world. Not only will selected participants get to see their films projected on the big screen under the open sky, but more importantly they will live among the villagers, interact with the local communities, share bread and watch films together, getting to experience Armenian culture first-hand. The authentic setting of the village is perfect for film professionals to discover a new reality from within and to share ideas in a free and friendly environment, resulting in a true intercultural dialogue. The setting of the festival has already inspired two directors to make a film in Armenia and many more have expressed a desire to do so. Filmadaran is collaborating with them to realize these projects.
The idea to organize a village film festival came from the desire to decentralize the cultural life in Armenia, where the vast majority of cultural events take place in the capital city of Yerevan and the rural population is basically devoid of opportunities to come into contact with international and even local art. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, villages were mostly ignored by cultural policy-makers for three decades. Apricot Tree, which attracts to its screenings not only the viewers of the villages where the event is set at, but also populations of nearby villages and cities, has the aim of righting this wrong and making the rural population an active and integral part of modern Armenian cultural life.
The festival organizers strongly believe that only by coming into contact with others do we grasp ourselves. By grasping ourselves, we seek to understand and get to know others and by understanding, we start to sympathize with them. In contrast, the unknown and the unclear generate fear, distrust, and enmity. Understanding the life, manners and traditions, struggles, and experiences of other nations, tribes, and social and religious groups – this is what “Apricot Tree” calls for and aspires to. And nothing can realize that aspiration better and more effective, than the week-long coexistence in the same space of people from various parts of the world and also “documentary” cinema, which lets the audience not only see but also sympathize with the reality of the screen.