Biography

Garegin Zakoyan (b. April 5, 1947) is an Armenian documentary filmmaker and film scholar. In 1990, he founded the Armenian National Cinematheque, which he headed until 1998. In 2015, he founded and became the director of Apricot Tree International Documentary Film Festival. In 2016, he co-founded and became the president of Filmadaran Film Culture Development NGO. Making his directing debut in 1990 with "MIGNOR", he has since made around 15 documentaries, including "Prison Art" (1998, co-directed by Gennadi Melkonyan), "Kajaran: Metamorphosis of Stone" (2001), "Patarag" (2005), "Ayrudzi" (2017), "Mon Reichshoffen" (2023) etc. Zakoyan has been active in publishing renowned filmmaker Sergei Parajanov's heritage. 2020 saw the second, revised publication of "Sergei Parajanov: Letters from Prison", while "Sergei Parajanov: INTERMEZZO" was published in 2021 (both in Russian), comprising not only the script of Parajanov's unmade film, but also his illustrations and many archival materials surrounding its history. Zakoyan is the author of 2 monographies (in Russian): "Armenian Silent Cinema" (1977) and "Language and Cinema" (1989). He also published the photo-album "My Yerevan" (2019, in Armenian, Russian, English and French) and the extensive archival work "Armenian Cinema. Materials and Documents: 1909-1936" (2023, in Russian and Armenian).