Stone Time Touch

Stone Time Touch is a beautifully crafted Armenian-Canadian film released in 2007. Directed by Gariné Torossian, this exceptional cinematic piece casts Kamee Abrahamian, Arevik Arevshatian, and Nora Badalian. Gariné Torossian, a talented filmmaker of Armenian descent but raised in Canada, resourcefully employs her unique artistic prism to tell the story of personal discovery, identity, and cultural memory creating a harmonious blend of personal documentary, lyrical essay, and visual poetry.

The film opens up to Kamee Abrahamian, as she wrestles with her personal conundrums of identity and roots. A young Armenian woman with Canadian upbringing, Kamee presents a curious case of an individual fiercely holding on to her roots while displaced from her ancestral land. Her character triggers an explorative journey that oscillates between the spaces of the past and the present, the concrete and the abstract, the physical and the emotional.

Complementing Kamee's personal exploration, Arevik Arevshatian and Nora Badalian portray compelling narratives that further divulge into the nuances of their culture, community, and history. Arevik Arevshatian entwines the cultural folklore and ancestral Armenian memories in a sophisticated articulation intended to create an immersive personal encounter for the audience. Nora Badalian navigates through the present-day realities of Armenians, making commentary on socio-political dynamics, and the constant battle of the traditional past converging with the present.

The film is an intelligent juxtaposition of the mundane against the profound, the physical against the metaphysical, and time-bound reality against the timeless grandeur of human emotions. Director Gariné Torossian layers the film with pictures and flashes of the cityscapes of Yerevan (Armenia's capital) and Stepanakert (the capital city of the disputed Republic of Nagorno Karabakh), big bustling diaspora spaces in Beirut, Jerusalem, and Los Angeles. She paints a vivid picture of the complex Armenian identity through an amalgamation of memories, narratives, and visual aesthetics.

The cinematography of Stone Time Touch is a rich tapestry of footage, documenting the difference between the lens of a professional and an amateur, the filmmaking style that mingles personal and national history, and presents a visual spectacle manifesting snippets from history, personal narratives, and memories. Handling the lens predominantly himself, Torossian utilizes a wide spectrum of visual language from 35mm to mini-DV, from Super 8 to Hi-8. The film also experiments with manipulative animation working miracles with torn fragments, collage, and photomontage. The spectral color experiments add to the aesthetics and uniqueness of the film that speak to the spirit of the collective Armenian diaspora.

In terms of sound design and music, the film presents a unique combination of ambient sounds of cityscapes, conversations, music, and narratives that seamlessly complements the visual aesthetics. The soundtrack, filled with traditional Armenian tunes, further enhances the exploration of cultural identity.

Stone Time Touch excellently explores a universal theme of identity, memory, and belonging. It lays down a richly emotional and intellectual map of what it means to be an Armenian in the face of geopolitical, historical, and personal realities. The film transcends beyond the specificities of Armenian history and communicates a more widespread human sentiment of a longing for home, a longing for connection, and a longing for identity. It speaks to anyone who has ever felt displaced or disconnected from their identity, prompting them to embark on their own journey of introspection and exploration.

This film is not only a cultural self-portrait of a diasporic Armenian but also a groundbreaking piece of cinematic art with its unique style of storytelling. It is an open letter to anyone on the fringes of their identity, inviting them to partake in a joyride of memory, time, and self-realization.

All in all, Stone Time Touch is a film that amalgamates past with the present, tangible with the metaphysical, and self-realization with the grandeur of ancestral history. It's a must-watch for anyone who loves experimenting with cinematic narratives or is keen on indulging in a journey into individual and collective memory.