When Tarkovsky inscribed and sent his child’s drawing to the imprisoned Parajanov, who annotated and sent it to the blacklisted Vartanov for his son Martiros — Boy with a Movie Camera — he became their disciple.
His first film, The Last Film, dedicated to them, was released by Criterion, and his new film will be based on his book Boy with a Movie Camera.
After working on the restoration of the masterpiece The Color of Pomegranates, he’s now restoring the film Parajanov: The Last Spring with UCLA, thanks to Grammy-winning rock band System of a Down and Oscar-winning director Francis Ford Coppola.
Vartanov also curates DOC LA, Los Angeles Documentary Film Festival, organized by the Parajanov-Vartanov Institute in Hollywood, and presents its annual awards whose honorees include such luminaries as Martin Scorsese and Emma Thompson.
VARTANOV.com 