Arthur Balder's American Mirror Most Awarded Film At DOC LA

'American Mirror - Intimations of Immortality', directed by Arthur Balder and produced by David Shara, landed top prize at The Documentary Film Festival of Los Angeles (DOC LA), presented by the Parajanov-Vartanov Film Institute.

The film was the most awarded one and garnered four awards: Best Innovative Film, Best Cinematography, Best Composer (Mark Petrie) and the top prize, Parajanov-Vartanov Institute Award for Susan Sarandon. Previous recipients of the award are Emma Thompson and Martin Scorsese, and Jean Vigo. Other cast members are Florence Faivre, Tigran Tsitoghdzyan, Ashley Hinshaw and Hillary Rhoda.

Screenings will follow in Hollywood at the Egyptian Theatre organized by the 21st ARPA International Film Festival next Sunday November 4th, Hollywood. The picture has been presented by NYC-based documentary powerhouses Da Vinci Films and Optimum Diamonds Films.

The Parajanov-Vartanov award has been accepted and honored by such film personalities as Martin Scorsese, Emma Thomson, and Martin Mardik.

'American Mirror - Intimations of Immortality' features Oscar-winning screen icon Susan Sarandon and Armenian painter Tigran Tsitoghdzyan as he limns her portrait during a timeless sitting session, while actress Florence Faivre plays the intriguing role of the ever-present though unattainable artist's Muse.

With this film the director, Arthur Balder, sets in motion his theory on poetics of cinematic art, by re-creating sense memories of an artist in a non-linear, challenging story-telling scheme. 'Intimations of Immortality' is a reference taken from the famous ode by British Romantic poet William Wordsworth, 'Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood'. For Wordsworth, poetry was all about the 'memories' we have. The reconstruction of deep thought-processes, which we can call memories but also omens and other sort of 'visions', imagery occurring in the mind's eye of the subject, entirely 'subjective' since their inception, are the intriguing matter of the picture.

The film, straddling the frontier between documentary and fiction, reveals how Tigran, a highly dedicated craftsman, tries to bring the ancient spirit of the old masters into a unique post-modern hyperrealism deeply interwoven with NYC's culture and social landscape. Shot over the period of three years, the film takes us on a rare, thought-provoking, timeless reality-and-fiction setting to reveal how one of the most striking artists in recent art history climbs up the art-world ranks on the winding journey to success and recognition. The presence of legendary art critic Donald Kuspit resonates as the voice of a deus ex machina speaking from a remote, virtual museum in the 19th Century.

From producer David Shara and writer-director Arthur Balder, with an original soundtrack by composer Mark Petrie, American Mirror stars Susan Sarandon, Tigran Tsitoghdzyan, Donald Kuspit and Florence Faivre. With the participation of Ashley Hinshaw Grace, Jules Wainstein, Hilary Rhoda, Morgan Shara, Ryan Ross, Sirey Moran.

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