But and Yet Still...

In 2018, Canadian-Armenian screen and stage actress Arsinée Khanjian made headlines for her vociferous support of Armenia’s Velvet Revolution. It was to be her last major public appearance until only a few months ago—a long period marked by a life-threatening illness and vicious backlash following the 2020 Artsakh War. Reflecting on this traumatic experience, Khanjian made her return to the stage in the auto-fictional play, “Donation” directed by her creative and life partner Atom Egoyan. In an EVN Report exclusive, the actress breaks her silence on how her relationship to Armenian culture and her art have transformed over these past fateful years.

On April 25, renowned Canadian-Armenian filmmaker Atom Egoyan premiered his first dramatic play “Donation” on the main stage of Berlin's Maxim Gorki Theater. Specially commissioned by the theater’s artistic director Shermin Langhoff for the month-long festival “100+10-Armenian Allegories”, this autofictional two-hander starring Arsineé Khanjian delves into complex themes of artistic legacy, the slippages of memory and the ambivalent relationship between artists and art institutions. In this exclusive interview, Egoyan talks with Vigen Galstyan on the difficult process of writing and directing this deeply personal, yet sharply political opus.

What can documentary photography do in times of crisis? How can it help us understand and affirm our identities? We speak about these and other questions in our first English-language podcast with the internationally-renowned LA-based photographer Ara Oshagan.