Works
Peleshyan's early films, made when he was still a student at VGIK, were awarded several prizes. Twelve films by Peleshyan are known to exist. ''The Beginning'' ( hy, Սկիզբը ''Skizbe'') (1967) is a cinematographical essay about the October Revolution of 1917. One of the unique visual effects used in this film is achieved by holding snippets of film still on a single frame, then advancing only for a second or two before again pausing on another, resulting in a stuttering visual effect. Other important films by him are ''We'' ( hy, Մենք ''Menq'') (1967), a poetically told history of Armenia and its people, and ''Inhabitants'' (russian: Обитатели ''Obitateli'') (1970), a reflection on the relationship between wildlife and humans. Artavazd Peleshian's most significant film is considered, by many critics, to be '' Seasons of the Year'' ( hy, Տարվա եղանակները ''Tarva yeghanaknere'') (1975), shot by cinematographer Mikhail Vartanov. It is a look at the contradiction and harmony between humans and nature and was the last collaboration between Peleshian and Vartanov, Armenia's two most important documentary auteurs, who first worked together on ''The Autumn Pastoral'' ( hy, Աշնանային հովվերգություն ''Ashnanayin hovvergutyun'') (1971). Peleshyan is also the author of a range of theoretical works, such as his 1988 book, ''My Cinema'' (russian: Моё кино ''Moyo kino''). Being from a country removed from internationally significant cinema circles, Peleshyan's efforts were not initially well-recognized by critics of world cinema. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, he has made two more short films, ''Life'' ( hy, Կյանք ''Kyanq'') (1993) and ''The End'' (1994). He is now living in Moscow. His most recent film, ''Nature'' (french: La nature), was edited at the ZKM , Karlsruhe Film Institute in 2005-2006 and was premiered in 2020.Personal commentary
In 1998, Peleshyan reflected on his approach to filmmaking and cinematography,"It's about what I'm striving for, what we're all striving for - every person, humanity ..the wishes and desires of the people to ascend, to transcend ..I was thinking of everything. It's not specifically the seasons of the year or of people: it's everything ..Eisenstein's montage was linear, like a chain. Distance montage creates a magnetic field around the film ..Sometimes I don't call my method 'montage'. I'm involved in a process of creating unity. In a sense I've eliminated montage: by creating the film through montage, I have destroyed montage. In the totality, in the wholeness of one of my films, there is no montage, no collision, so as a result montage has been destroyed. In Eisenstein every element means something. For me the individual fragments don't mean anything anymore. Only the whole film has the meaning ..For me, distance montage opens up the mysteries of the movement of the universe. I can feel how everything is made and put together; I can sense its rhythmic movement."
Filmography
As director
* ''Mountain Vigil'' (1964) * ''Earth of People'' (1966) * ''The Beginning'' (1967) * ''Dream'' (1968) * ''We'' (1969) * ''Inhabitants'' (1970) * ''Stellar Minute'' (1972) * '' Seasons of the Year'' (1975) * ''Our Century'' (1982) * ''God in Russia'' (1984) * ''The End'' (1992) * ''Life'' (1993) * ''Nature'' (2020)As screenwriter
* ''The Autumn Pastoral'' (1971) (directed by Mikhail Vartanov) * ''Homo Sapiens'' (1979) * ''Desert'' (1984)As actor
* '' We and Our Mountains'' (1969) (as Revaz) * ''The Silence of Peleshyan'' (2011) (himself)Bibliography
* Mikhail Vartanov. "Artavazd Peleshyan" Garun magazine, Armenia, 1971. * Peleshian, Artavazd. "Moyo Kino" Sovetakan grokh, Armenia, 1988. * Peleshyan, Artavazd. "Remote montage and cinema by Artavazd Peleshyan" - in Italian. Ed. in Italy, 1989. * Peleshyan, Artavazd. "OUR CENTURY" - in German and English. Ed. in Austria and Germany, 2004. * Peleshyan, Artavazd. "Remote montage and distance theory" - in Spanish and English. Ed. in Mexico, 2011. * Peleshyan, Artavazd. "Matter and Space — Films by Artavazd Peleshyan" - in Spanish and French. Ed. in Colombia and in France, 2011. * Peleshyan, Artavazd. "Remote montage by Artavazd Peleshyan" - in Czech. Ed. in the Czech Republic, 2016. * Peleshyan, Artavazd. "Capturing time // articles, essays, press conferences, master classes, creative meetings, film theory, unrealized projects / a collection of materials from two parts" - Yerevan: Tigran Mets, 2016. * Peleshyan, Artavazd. "Peace Symphony" - in French. Ed. in France, 2017. * Peleshyan, Artavazd. "My universe and unified field theory" - in Russian. Ed. in Armenia, 2017. * Peleshyan, Artavazd. "My universe and unified field theory" - in English. Ed. in Armenia, 2018. * Artavazd Peleschian, Gerald Matt, Angela Stief, Ursula Blickle Stiftung. Our age. —Bielefeld, Kerber. — New York, Wien: Distributed Art Publishers, Kunsthalle, 2004.References
External links