Thanks to the generous support of donors, filmmaker and Malvern alum Alex Igidbashian ‘08 sets out to show the true charm of Armenia
Traversed: A Visual Journey Through Armenia is filmmaker Alex Igidbashian’s newest project. After living in Armenia for nearly a year, Igidbashian plans to depict the history, people, culture, and landscape of Armenia through a twenty minute film.
“I moved to Yerevan, Armenia in 2013,” said Igidbashian, “as a volunteer for Birthright Armenia. My experience was awesome — living with a host family, taking language classes, volunteering at a documentary studio, and exploring the country. I am finished volunteering but am now pursuing this film on my own.”
After gathering footage for three weeks, Igidbashian successfully shot a trailer, but wished to do more. Together with his partner, Emily, the two Armenian-Americans set out to make a short documentary from the perspectives of both “outsiders” and an “insiders” of the nation.
To raise the funds for the movie, Igidbashian took to Kickstarter, a website that allows intrigued backers to support creative new ideas by contributing funds. His goal was to raise $14,000 in a thirty day period. After the thirty day period, the movie raised $16,133, with a total of 165 donors.
“The notion of turning to the general public in order to fund projects is revolutionizing not only art, but technology, startup businesses, everything,” said Igidbashian. “It is freeing the individual from the constraints of a much larger (and richer) entity telling you how to do this and that because they gave you money.”
“You are afforded all of the freedom to make your dream a reality and we’re hoping that’s what will happen with Traversed!” he said.
No stranger to Kickstarter, Igidbashian successfully raised the funds for his first film, Haenyeo: Women of the Sea, through the site
Even with a good idea and experience, Igidbashian admits that there is more to it than just pitching the money-maker.
“It is not simply pressing a button and watching money pour in! The planning and preparation of content, information, rewards, logistics, and then once you launch, continuously spreading the word, reaching new circles, posting here and there, it gets to be a lot,” he said.
Igidbashian had some advice for the Malvern student body: “Be jealous of no one — this is something I continually tell myself and it really has two meanings, which may seem a bit contradictory. First; be humble, appreciate what you have, who you are, and what you are capable of.”
“But second, when you see something you want, when you see someone doing something and think ‘Aw man, I wish I could be doing that,’ stop thinking about it and go make it happen.”
