The following announcement was provided by West Newton Cinema:
The West Newton Cinema Foundation is presenting a special screening of the internationally acclaimed documentary There Was, The Was Not on Friday, Nov. 7, 2025, at 7 p.m. at the West Newton Cinema, 1296 Washington St., West Newton.
Following the screening, the film’s writer and director Emily Mkrtichian will participate in the Director’s Spotlight, a program of the West Newton Cinema Foundation. The Q&A discussion will be moderated by Paul Boghosian, President of Harbor Side Films. The film company produces documentaries (PBS), public affairs programming as well as major television and cable and streaming projects for networks and private clients. Presently in development is Pulitzer-Prize-winning poet, Peter Balakian’s memoir, “Black Dog of Fate.” A reception follows the Q&A, hosted by anoush’ella.
For tickets, $20/person are available at westnewtoncinema.com
“West Newton Cinema is continually looking for films that engage our community in interesting and important topics. This documentary captures the determination and beauty of daily living in a part of the world that deserves more attention,” comments JB Sloan, who serves on the Board of Directors of the West Newton Cinema Foundation and its Programming Committee. A resident of West Newton, JB is Chief Producer Officer of NuArca.
In Emily Mkrtichian’s award-winning film, There Was, The Was Not, myth and reality intertwine to reveal the lives of four Armenian women facing the loss of their homeland.
What began as a quiet observation of their daily lives became, after the war in Artsakh, an urgent chronicle of survival, a cinematic act of memory and resistance.
In 2018, Emily Mkrtichian initially set out to make a film about the daily lives and hopes of women in Artsakh, an autonomous, disputed ethnically Armenian territory between Azerbaijan and Armenia with an enduring legacy of conflict. She followed a minesweeper, an aspiring politician, a women’s rights activist, and a judo champion as they navigated a precarious peace while building their lives and communities. In 2020, when Azerbaijan launched a surprise attack and war broke out again, Mkrtichian continued filming as shelling began around her, witnessing her subjects’ worlds and dreams immediately transform. The documentary evolved from an observational meditation on strength into an urgent portrayal of survival, capturing the personal and cultural impacts of a homeland at risk of loss, and the power of story to keep it alive.
This powerful work is directed, produced, and shot by Mkrtichian, with producer Brock Williams (On Her Shoulders), and executive producers Alexandria Bombach (It’s Only Life After All), and D.D. Wigley (Sam Now). Filmmaker Atom Egoyan praised the film as “a deeply felt and beautifully made film.”
The film has been hailed by critics as “A bold act of narrative resistance”, The Moveable Fest; “A fiery, feminist wartime fable”, Hammer to Nail; “A powerful tribute to a former country,” RogerEbert.com.
The documentary has toured festivals worldwide following its world premiere at True/False Film Festival, winning multiple awards, including the Audience Award and First Honorable Mention Jury Award at Argentina’s Mar del Plata International Film Festival and the FIPRESCI International Film Critics’ Award at the Golden Apricot Film Festival.
Tickets for are $20/person and available at westnewtoncinema.com/movie/there-was-there-was-not.
The West Newton Cinema Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, owns and operates the historic West Newton Cinema as a nonprofit movie house and cultural center. West Newton Cinema offers a curated selection of independent, mainstream, classic, and foreign films with innovative programming that expands our horizons and strengthens our connection to one another through the shared experience of film. wncfoundation.org