YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 15, ARMENPRESS: US Glendel Community College El Vaquero student newspaper dwelled on the creator of some of the most iconic worlds in contemporary cinema - Armenian descent film director Roger Kupelian. As Armenpress reports, East of Byzantium is Kupelian’s recently published graphic novel series and he is looking to make it into not only a mini-documentary series, but into a major motion picture. East of Byzantium spans 150 years of Armenian history starting at 301 A.D. when Armenia became the first Christian state in history. Persia and the Roman Empire were warring with one another and between this collision is Armenia,” said Kupelian. Emperor Diocletian sent an exiled Armenian king back to claim Armenia as an ally of Rome. That changed that region of the world forever. It set a series of events in motion and altered not only the balance between empires, but the balance of religions and cultures. The constant bloodshed leads into the year 451 A.D. and Kupelian’s interpretation of St. Vartan Mamigonian, the most venerated saint in the Armenian Orthodox Church. I wanted a Vartan that was very different than the one history depicts, said Kupelian. I wanted a Vartan that I can relate to. I wanted someone that was in the mud, on the battlefield and was struggling for his life, because that moment is glory for a warrior. Kupelian painted his first image of Vartan in New Zealand, on the set of ''Lord of the Rings''. Kupelian also dwelled on Nagorno Karabakh conflict. ''Dark Forest in the Mountains'' was Kupelian’s first documentary, and the first time he directed a movie. He started filming the war in the 1990s. Avedis Sangigian is an Armenian-American veteran from the Nagorno-Karabakh War who attended Kupelian’s lecture. Sangigian fought for a year and a half and was one of many Armenian Americans that volunteered to fight. Garo Kyahkidjian was a friend of Sangigian and is a main character in Kupelian's documenatry. Kyahkidjian died after the war. I watch that documentary everyday,said Sangigian, in memory of his old friend. Sangigian and Kyahkidjian’s bravery makes them warriors, according to Kupelian. I want our next generation to see itself in terms of being a warrior,said Kupelian. We must once again embrace and embody what it means to be a warrior tribe.