Freedom of Art
Art Interrupted: Rock's Open Nerve: Lav Eli
Produced by the acknowledged documentarist Tigran Paskevichyan and directed by Eduard Paskevichyan, the documentary ‘Rock's Open Nerve: Lav Eli’ tells the story of this long-established Armenian rock band. Lav Eli members talk about their experiences of music, struggle, and resistance. Their musical history is intertwined with the political oppression they have faced because of their active role in social movements.
When I received an offer to make a film about interrupted art, I recalled several artists whose creative processes had been disrupted by restricting their rights and freedoms. But I decided to choose the rock band "Lav Eli", whose activity, I can say, has always been right in front of my eyes.
Since the 90s, those difficult years for Armenia, until the 2000s, when political and civic movements flourished, the rock band "Lav Eli", through its public performances, bolstered the unbreakable will of a rebellious people and increased the energy of their resistance.
For me, and I think for many people like me, it was a sad reality that "Lav Eli" did not appear on TV screens for some time, that they did not have the opportunity to perform/play in big concert halls. But the members of the group were more persistent than those who tried to block free thought and speech. Today, fortunately, they fill concert halls and squares with thousands of people, giving them a chance to feel the open nerve of Armenian rock.
Creative Team
Learn more about the creative team behind this project.
Art Interrupted Project
This film is part of ‘Art Interrupted’ documentary series, produced by Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom for East and Southeast Europe, in cooperation with artists from Turkey, Greece, Armenia, and Georgia.
‘Art Interrupted’ aims to explore the difficulties in the field of art, to raise broader awareness of the problems faced by artists, and to develop collective solutions to problems of freedom of expression in East and Southeast Europe.