The Fresno Premiere Screening of the Award-Winning “There Was, There Was Not”

FRESNO — The Armenian Studies Program and the Fresno State CineCulture program are presenting the Fresno premiere screening of the award-winning “There Was, There Was Not,” at 5:30PM on Friday, September 19, 2025. Director Emily Mkrtichian will be present at the screening to discuss her film. The screening is free and open to the public and will be held in the Leon S. and Pete P. Peters Educational Center, 5010 N. Woodrow Ave. (west end of the SaveMart Center), on the Fresno State campus.

“There Was, There Was Not” follows four women living in the Republic of Artsakh, an unrecognized country reckoning with the aftermath of one war while on the precipice of another. In the midst of this uncertainty, four women build a life with the hope of making their home a better place. When war breaks out again, what began as an observational meditation on women’s roles after conflict becomes an urgent and intimate record of their lives interrupted once again by war. From taking up arms on the front lines to fleeing their homes as refugees, each woman’s life changes irrevocably. Their journey becomes the myth of a homeland lost forever, and the power of story to keep it alive.

“I never meant to make a film that documented war, displacement, and ethnic cleansing,” said Mkrtichian. “I meant to make a film about how women create a sense of home and a better future for their communities, after the rupture of war, displacement, and ethnic cleansing. But history repeats itself.”

“The movie began as a way to connect the stories of my culture I heard growing up with four women who were actively creating that culture, and building a future I wanted to be a part of.”

Director Emily Mkrtichian is a filmmaker and interdisciplinary collaborator whose artistic practice reflects her upbringing in a displaced, diasporic family, and explores radically personal, alternative archives of places and people, especially from the SWANA region, and a deep commitment to the healing power of relational, ethical, collaborative storytelling. Her films include the sci-fi short “Transmission,” which premiered at the BFI Flare Film Festival, the short documentary “Motherland,” which premiered at the Full Frame Film Festival and won Best Short Documentary at the Copenhagen International Film Festival, and her debut feature documentary “There Was, There Was Not,” which has been supported by the Sundance Institute, IDA, Chicken & Egg Pictures and HotDocs.

For more information about the film screening please contact the Armenian Studies Program at 278-2669, visit the CineCulture website, https://cineculture.csufresno.edu/films/, or visit our Facebook page at @ArmenianStudiesFresnoState.