A curation of narrative, documentary, experimental and commercial work by Los Angeles-based Armenian-American writer/director Anahid Yahjian.
Scroll to the right or click through the links under “WATCH” in the navigation to see the work in full.
Branded Film / 2022 / Koreatown, Los Angeles
Director
Multi-hyphenate Korean Canadian musician Luna Li gets lost and found in a traditional hanbok atelier as she contemplates the dualities she has, still does and will carry as she debuts her first album, the aptly titled Duality.
For Amazon Music. See more branded work here.
Documentary / 2021 / Nagorno-Karabakh
Writer / Director / Cinematographer
Hishé is a meditation on alienation, confusion, grief and the burden of remembering. These four elements frame my relationship with the Nagorno-Karabakh region now more than ever. As an American with Western Armenian ancestry, I have never quite been able to claim neither ownership over nor full understanding of that "black garden" and its mind-bending history, yet I have nevertheless felt completely spellbound when walking amongst its silent ruins and dark, lush trees. Like a gap in the space-time continuum, this "no-man's land," as I once described it to the uninitiated, is a place where I have often gone and felt myself start to disappear. Now, as I reckon with possibly never being able to return to it within my mortal lifetime, I am drowning under the weight of making sure I never forget it. This film is an attempt to capture this process, and is comprised of footage and photographs that I and others like me have accumulated in the last 10-12 years of areas in the region where we are no longer permitted to go and ask our questions. While the film does reckon with post-2020 war realities, it does so by revisiting footage and memories from the decade preceding it. The structure, if mapped, takes us on a journey to southern Armenia, into NKR, and back out—for the last time.
Commissioned by the City of Glendale’s ReflectSpace gallery for their Sites of Fracture virtual exhibition.
Branded Film / 2021 / Los Angeles
Director
A day in the life of rising alt-soul artist Fousheé as she ruminates on her process, maternal inheritance and future legacy as a woman and musician. She made history in March 2021 as the first Black woman since Tracy Chapman's "Crossroads" to make it to the Top 10 Alternative Billboard list.
For Amazon Music. See more branded work here.
Branded Documentary / 2020 / Atlanta
Director
A creative camp for women in music takes place at Tree Sound studios outside Atlanta, GA. As the facility is flooded with a diverse array of women creatives, 22-year-old producer Wondagurl hunkers down in one of the building's key recording spaces to collaborate intimately with artist-peers Baby Rose, Yung Baby Tate, Kodie Shane and her protegee/mentee, 15-year-old Lucy Clubhouse. Intimate, unplanned moments of creativity unfold inside the seemingly airtight shell of the studio while the exuberant chaos of the greater camp glimmers just outside the soundproof glass.
2021 Bronze Clio Award Winner.
For Amazon Music. See more branded work here.
Fiction / 2019 / Oregon
Director / Producer / Writer
After a deadly car accident, a queer activist couple are flung into parallel realities and must embark on a search between worlds to find each other again.
2019 World Premiere at the British Film Institute’s Flare London LGBTQ+ Film Festival. Visit film site here.
Branded Film / 2019 / Los Angeles
Director
A meditative love letter to SiR's hometown of Inglewood, California on the heels of the release of his acclaimed third studio album "Chasing Summer."
For Amazon Music. See more branded work here.
Music Video / 2018 / California, Lebanon, Armenia
Director / Cinematographer / Editor
Second single from Chicago-based Finom's debut album, Parts.
For Joyful Noise Recordings. See more music videos here.
Experimental / 2014-2016 / California + Lebanon
Director / Writer / Producer / Cinematographer
CORPUS CALLOSUM is an experimental cinematic triptych about bondage, imprisonment and the terror of freedom. Framed by existing works of confessional and concrete poetry, it traces the haunting tensions between a masked jailor and his prisoner over the course of its 3 chapters. Read more here.
Selected to tour England for Platform Asia’s landmark series highlighting West Asian cinema, “Germinate” - March 2024.
Documentary / 2013 / Yerevan
Director / Cinematographer / Editor
Levon is a 60-year-old rollerblader living exuberantly in the post-Soviet landscape of Yerevan, Armenia. He is aware of the struggles his people face, and understands why they are emigrating in droves. But that doesn't change his enduring belief in and contentment with the simple magic of being alive.
For OneArmenia. See more branded work here.
Fiction / 2016 / Los Angeles
Producer
NICOLAS explores the emotional and thematic landscape of child estrangement. Based on true stories, the film follows Nicolas in the aftermath of a physical fight with his estranged mother.
Fiction / 2012 / Yerevan
Producer
A young boy must go to the store by himself for the first time. When the 140 drams his mother gave him for milk are not enough, he has to make a difficult choice.
Documentary / 2011 / Los Angeles
Director
Meet Ara: a flighty 23-year-old millennial poster child. Some would say that he has misguided potential; others would just call him a hipster.
Documentary / 2010 / Sofia
Writer / Director / Cinematographer / Editor
At 19, I returned to my birthplace, Bulgaria, to understand how the Armenians there had assimilated into the dominant culture since my parents and I left.