There Was, There Was Not: The Artist as Witness
EP. 04
There Was, There Was Not: The Artist as Witness
with Emily Mkrtichian
In this conversation, Armenian filmmaker and multimedia artist Emily Mkrtichian joins Alma to reflect on There Was, There Was Not—a filmic meditation on memory, belonging, and the endurance of love. The film traces the lives of four women from Artsakh, a historically Armenian land that has since been blockaded, invaded, and ethnically cleansed. What began as a quiet portrait of daily life evolved into an unflinching act of resistance and remembrance.
Their dialogue explores what it means to witness rather than control and the artist’s role when reality ruptures. Their dialogue moves through themes of diaspora and transmission, the body as archive, and the ways that story itself can keep a place alive when homeland is lost.
This episode is as much about the making of a film as it is about the making of meaning: how attention becomes devotion, how pain opens into wisdom, and how art continues to transmit what history erases.
There Was, There Was Not is opening in theaters in New York and Los Angeles this month, with additional cities soon to follow.
Listen on Apple ➝
Listen on Spotify ➝EPISODE NOTES
About Emily:
Emily Mkrtichian is a filmmaker and interdisciplinary artist from a displaced, diasporic family who explores alternative archives and visionary futures of the SWANA region. Her films include the first Armenian sci-fi film, Transmission, which premiered at the BFI Flare Film Festival, and the feature documentary THERE WAS, THERE WAS NOT, which premiered at True/False and won several awards including the FIPRESCI Prize at the Golden Apricot Film Festival and the Audience Award and Jury Award at the Mar del Plata International Film Festival. In addition to her films, Emily's multimedia installation Luys i Luso, created in collaboration with Tigran Hamasyan, has been exhibited in museums, concert halls, and public spaces around the globe.
She is a recipient of the 2025 Creative Capital award, a DocX Fellow at Duke University, and an alumni of the Sundance Institute. She currently splits her time between the US and Armenia.
View the trailer and find screenings of THERE WAS, THERE WAS NOT on the film’s website.