Media Event 1: Watching the restored Armenian masterpiece, The Color of Pomegranates (1969)

On Thursday evening, October 12 at White Hall 208, I was invited by my professors from Russian Avant-Garde media class to come watch a restored movie from long time ago. I was told beforehand that the movie itself is a very avant-garde piece of work, which one should give up trying to comprehend the story flow but just focus on the artwork instead. There were many people in the room in fact; mostly middle-aged or elderly. Coincidentally almost all of them were White, presumably of Russian descendants; they were speaking either in Russian or in English with very heavy Russian accent.

Before the film was shown, a professor from Emory Russian department gave a short introduction about the movie. The Color of Pomegranates (1969) is an Armenian movie which had original title Sayat-Nova, the main character. The film has long been banned from public screening due to Soviet authorities' censorship, but it was digitally restored awhile ago which the particular Emory Russian professor participated in.

Nevertheless the film started and I must say, it was the most extraordinary film I have ever watched in my life. It was full of religious symbols, endless rituals and tons of emotionless people performing abstract actions such as slaughtering chicken, with constant bell ringing every 10 seconds in the background. I could neither grasp the story nor the message the movie was trying to portray, but I must admit, the visuals were spectacular. Unlike the 60's movies I imagined, this film was extremely colorful just like the Lego Movie and I enjoyed the vibrant color and texture.