YEREVAN, JULY 20, ARMENPRESS. U.S. filmmaker Ted Braun will visit Armenia July 20-25, 2023, to conduct workshops and masterclasses for aspiring and emerging documentary filmmakers as part of the U.S. State Department’s American Film Showcase (AFS) program, the U.S. Embassy said in a press release.

AFS is the premier American film diplomacy program of the U.S. State Department. In partnership with U.S. Embassies, AFS organizes screenings, workshops, and master classes in more than 60 countries per year. AFS offers global audiences insight into American society and culture through film, and empowers local filmmakers with tools to tell their own stories.

The U.S. Embassy in Yerevan is partnering with the Investigative Journalists NGO (Hetq) and the Tumo Center for Creative Technologies, to organize intensive workshops and masterclasses with Ted Braun on documentary storytelling and conflict reporting for aspiring and emerging documentary filmmakers and mid-career journalists. 

“Documentary storytelling has the power to inspire us, and shape the world around us.  The U.S. Embassy is proud to bring Ted Braun to Armenia, whose films have shown the impact documentary filmmakers can have to raise awareness of social justice issues, and advance positive change,” said U.S. Ambassador to Armenia Kristina Kvien.

Writer/director Ted Braun is best known for his award-winning documentary film Darfur Now, which raised international awareness of the genocide in Western Sudan and sparked a global social action campaign, and his feature documentary Betting on Zero, which exposed allegations of global economic corporate crime. He is a professor at the University of Southern California’s (USC) School of Cinematic Arts where he teaches screenwriting and is the Joseph Campbell Endowed Chair in Cinematic Ethics.