A limited screening of the award-winning documentary My Sweet Land, followed by a discussion with film director Sareen Hairabedian and Carla Garapedian, Ph.D., of the Armenian Film Foundation.
Friday, April 4, 2025
6:00 PM - 9:00 PM (Pacific Time)
Darren Star Screening Room, Melnitz Hall 1422
235 Charles E Young Dr E
Los Angeles, CA 90095
Admission is free! Seating is limited. Registration for this in-person-only event is required.
6:00 PM Registration
6:30 PM Film Screening
My Sweet Land is a coming-of-age story set against a multigenerational war in the post-Soviet Caucasus Mountains. It follows an 11-year-old boy named Vrej, growing up in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) who dreams of becoming a dentist in his picture-postcard village with its roaming ducks and golden bees. His sweet land, however, is strewn with mines from previous wars, shaping a country that remains unrecognized to the world. Vrej’s life takes a sudden turn when war erupts, forcing him to flee with his family. He spends his days in exile impatiently waiting for victory, but reality takes a different turn; Armenians lose the war. Upon returning to his surviving village, he confronts the devastation, new power dynamics, and education that prepares children for near-future battles. Vrej must learn the rules of war… But can he carry a nation’s hopes on his young shoulders? The film is a testament to the people of Artsakh, where hope and trauma had shaped their resilience across generations.
Carla Garapedian, Ph.D., is a filmmaker and member of The Armenian Film Foundation, which has forged a new partnership with the Promise Armenian Institute – to support the study of Armenian film and filmmakers, as well as to create the Armenian Image Archive, a repository and platform for the study of Armenian photography – from early to contemporary photographers.
Sareen Hairabedian is an Armenian-Jordanian documentary filmmaker based in the U.S. Through her intimate observational filming style, she captures the untold stories of the underrepresented. Hairabedian’s directorial debut WE ARE NOT DONE YET is a 40-minute HBO documentary about U.S. veterans grappling with PTSD who use poetry to heal. It was acclaimed Best Documentary at the G.I. Film Festival, and was nominated for Best Documentary Short at the IDA Awards 2018. MY SWEET LAND is her debut feature-length documentary featuring one child’s journey through disillusionment, trauma, and hope. The film is supported by ITVS, ARTE, AFAC, IDA and others. Sareen is a 2023 fellow at Video Consortium x DOCNYC and Creative Armenia.
Directions and Parking
The Darren Star Screening Room is located in Melnitz Hall, which is situated on the northeast corner of the UCLA campus in Westwood, adjacent to the Broad Art Center and the Murphy Sculpture Garden. For parking navigate to Parking Structure 3, just south of Sunset and just west of Hilgard. The address of the parking structure is 215 Charles E Young Dr N, LA, CA 90095; 215 Charles E Young Dr N, LA, CA 90095. You just walk south from the parking structure, and one of the first buildings you come to is Melnitz.
Pay-by-space parking is $3 per hour, up to $13 (all day).
Sponsor(s): The Promise Armenian Institute