Hollywood 2019. in the sweltering heat of LA, my family went out to this area for a couple of days in August. I was almost 19 and about to enter university in a few weeks back in Armenia, and I had no clear idea what I wanted to pursue after graduation.
Then we met a distant relative of mine on my mom’s side, which runs stronger with artists – he was an editor (I forget if it was for TV or film). He met us at the Marshalls of Hollywood (hilarious place to meet in) and we ate at a Mexican restaurant close to the Chinese Theatre.
He and my folks mostly caught up and talked about family and life… and before we left the restaurant, he told me I should try out filmmaking, pursue it – make good films! I mean, what he really said about that last part was something like, “You know that Christian films are mostly corny, right? Yeah? You should go make good films.” 🤣 pre-Chosen era lol. That path had never crossed my mind before (all that was feasible was writing and the general visual arts), and I didn’t really take it seriously. I thought I would’ve loved a creative career, but the Asian programming in me was like, “It’s impossible.”
And it took me a couple years to take up his unexpected challenge when I enrolled for an Intro to Filmmaking class as a third-year student, after I attended a workshop with a professor who talked about empathy in film and I was deeply inspired by a James Spader interview on acting from 1986. My love for various arts intersected in it and I fell in love with filmmaking.
Now I’m completing my final, second year of a master’s degree at film school and it’s not been easy, but I’m very grateful. Seeing these old pics of the big Hollywood studios taken by my noob self makes me smile because I just came out of an indie filmmaking workshop that was all about working, well, independently from the studios. And it’s funny how we used the bathroom in the mall where they hold the Oscars (referenced in the “LOTR 2003” pic) – it’s just an ordinary place, man. Anyway, if God gives a dream, He’ll give the faith & grace to pursue it.
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