“Wow – Iran looks amazing!” It’s really, really lovely to hear this reaction from viewers of Karun. It is exactly the reaction I’d hoped for, ever since my idea to make a travel documentary in Iran was born. Best of all, it is a natural reaction. We designed the adventure loosely to let Iran and the […]
If there’s one time an indie adventure filmmaker needs to reach out and ask for help from his or her supporters, it’s when a film is released – which in the case of Karun: Misadventures on Iran’s Longest River is right now. Films like this live or die by word of mouth. Leon and I have been fortunate to […]
I don’t often use the word ‘crazy’ or any of its synonyms, for fear of offending the genuinely insane. But the last few days have been very much a psychological minefield, simultaneously launching Karun: Misadventures On Iran’s Longest River, doing podcast interviews, switching continents (again) from Armenia to the UK, presenting at the Royal Geographical Society, […]
Mention in conversation that you’re planning on travelling to the Islamic Republic of Iran, and you will typically get one of two responses: 1. Concern or pity that you have clearly just signed your own death warrant; that you will, upon arrival in Iran, either be swiftly beheaded in public, or disappear from the face […]
Tomorrow is, in many ways, the culmination of years of work and preparation. The project began as a desire to explore Iran (my wife’s homeland) in more depth, brewed steadily while I learned to speak Farsi, and came to fruition in a journey along the Iran’s longest river, the Karun, last year. Now that journey is about to […]
Last weekend, on the way back to Armenia from a final film editing stint in London, I stopped over in Bucharest, Romania, for a long weekend at the Hip Trip Travel Film Festival. The festival was organised by a small team of Romanian travellers and film lovers. In 2014 – their first year – they’d […]
At the end of last year, Leon and I sat down with our editor and spent the best part of a month producing a short film of our adventure in Iran, during which we followed the river Karun from source to sea (or tried to, at least!). Today I’m happy to be able to share the […]
Being able to call myself an ‘award-winning filmmaker’ is a notable bonus when it comes to getting a certain type of person to take notice of my work. Like a well-designed book cover or a blog post optimised to attract search engine traffic, film awards are a way to advertise the fact that what you’ve made might be […]
Today I’m very pleased to be able to share with you the first of a couple of teaser videos of Karun, the film I’ve recently been working on. For those who missed it, Leon and I travelled to Iran in the spring of 2014 in order to follow the longest river in Iran. This film, […]