Armenia

Armenia Delegation
October 12 - 21, 2009
Filmmaker: David Hoffman, Sputnik Mania
Expert: Sandra Ruch

Delegate Report

by David Hoffman

I came to Armenia accompanied by Film Specialist Sandra Ruch to help the United States, the US State Department and our Embassy in Yerevan by supporting Armenian filmmakers, media professionals, media students and professional production organizations to achieve their goals inside Armenia and around the world.

From a technical point of view, everything worked perfectly. Every meeting took place exactly as it was scheduled. We were picked up at exactly the right times. All information was correct about whom we were meeting and what the goals were. It made my job as a communicator much easier and more effective.

In general, I found that Armenian media professionals, press and students were quite supportive of the United States already. They have admired our Embassy for previous artistic and other events it had offered. I also found the Armenian people by and large to be an intelligent, engaged people looking for opportunities.

The overwhelming issue was that they wanted to dialogue with me about those opportunities. I tried discussed production money sources, new ways to use the Internet, the Web, YouTube and Google, etc., that could enhance their media efforts. They took a lot of notes so I knew they took my suggestions seriously.

On Top TV talk show, Armenia

We also met with representatives of two professional media production organizations, both quite successful even by American standards. They wanted to know how granting/funding systems worked around the world and Sandra and I provided that information in detail.

What was particularly outstanding about this experience was that many of the meetings that Embassy officials had us conduct went beyond presenting American documentaries as works of art––of personal self-expression–– and dialogued about ways to help Armenians achieve their artistic goals more effectively, do better business, interact with Americans and make it more likely that they would succeed at whatever they were trying to do.

In a very general way, I would say that everyone was impressed with the freedom of the American system that supported the American Documentary Showcase and allowed for the presentation of personal point-of-view stories. We heard this comment time and again.

I cannot say us enough about the professionalism and skills of the Embassy staff that accompanied us and made everything happen as smoothly as it did. I was meaningfully impressed. My previous experiences abroad have been on behalf of oil companies whose in-the-field professionals are top-of-the-line and paid top wages. The Embassy people that took care of us were at least as good. Thank you for the opportunity.