Golden Apricot/Parajanov

Sergey Parajanov (1924-1990) experienced that a museum was being built in his honour. ”I must be the only one who is alive when a museum is set up”, he is said to have joked.

The museum is there, in Yerevan, you enter a courtyard, from where you go to a two-floor house full of the artist’s wonderful collages, where he is using all kind of available material, which he actually had to as he spent 10 years of his life in Soviet prisons. (He critised the regime and ”they” did not like his homosexuality! Scrubbers and brooms, he was regularly given the cleaning job in these locations, are among others requisites often seen.

There is no end to the stories that Parajanov gives the visitor with his collages and assemblages (his leather suitcases transformed into the sculpture of an elephant!, dolls, drawings, (ladies) hats – all very unsentimental as are the photos (with funny comments) of his family. Joyful. Playful.

There are reconstructions of a couple of rooms from his home in Tbilisi Georgia, with walls full of art works, colourful they are as his work as a filmmaker – at the museum there are clips from his films and costumes and drafts for scenography.

I bought three of his films, hopefully good quality, to substitute the old vhs copies in poor condition. First in line: The Colour of Pomegranates (1968) (Photo).

www.parajanovmuseum.am

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Tue Steen Müller
Tue Steen Müller

Müller, Tue Steen
Documentary Consultant and Critic, DENMARK

Worked with documentary films for more than 20 years at the Danish Film Board, as press officer, festival representative and film consultant/commissioner. Co-founder of Balticum Film and TV Festival, Filmkontakt Nord, Documentary of the EU and EDN (European Documentary Network).
Awards: 2004 the Danish Roos Prize for his contribution to the Danish and European documentary culture. 2006 an award for promoting Portuguese documentaries. 2014 he received the EDN Award “for an outstanding contribution to the development of the European documentary culture”. 2016 The Cross of the Knight of the Order for Merits to Lithuania. 2019 a Big Stamp at the 15th edition of ZagrebDox. 2021 receipt of the highest state decoration, Order of the Three Stars, Fourth Class, for the significant contribution to the development and promotion of Latvian documentary cinema outside Latvia. In 2022 he received an honorary award at DocsBarcelona’s 25th edition having served as organizer and programmer since the start of the festival.
From 1996 until 2005 he was the first director of EDN (European Documentary Network). From 2006 a freelance consultant and teacher in workshops like Ex Oriente, DocsBarcelona, Archidoc, Documentary Campus, Storydoc, Baltic Sea Forum, Black Sea DocStories, Caucadoc, CinéDOC Tbilisi, Docudays Kiev, Dealing With the Past Sarajevo FF as well as programme consultant for the festivals Magnificent7 in Belgrade, DOCSBarcelona, Verzio Budapest, Message2Man in St. Petersburg and DOKLeipzig. Teaches at the Zelig Documentary School in Bolzano Italy.

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