The list is getting longer! Elegy will screen in Hypefest, July 29-31 in Hollywood, CA. It’s also made it into the Woods Hole Film Festival in Cape Cod, MA, screening from July 30 - August 6.

Delays, delays. I have been away for a while, and just returned from a two week stay in Istanbul, Turkey. An extraordinary visit to the city where my family is from. I can say that I have an understanding as to how my family came to be the way they are. And why, in the end, they chose to leave and start fresh in America.

Istanbul is truly beautiful. I liken it to a massive San Francisco, with what some might call an exotic twist. I was surprised to find that I did not feel like a foreigner there. I’ve grown up saturated with elements of this culture — the language although I don’t speak it, the music, the food, the way people are. Armenians (Bolseh Hyes) living in this city are plentiful, and I found myself back home, in a sense. Loose edges in my minds were mended, and my identity makes more sense to me.

There is so much to talk about and share. But I’ll whet your appetite with a picture of the inside of the Hagia Sophia. (Pronounce it “Aya Sophia” please.) The Turks are realizing what a incredible historical treasure this old Greek Orthodox Cathedral-turned-mosque is, and they are now attemping to slowly restore the magnificent mosaics that they carelessly plastered over so long ago.