Philippe Vartan Khazarian (born January 3, 1965) was a French-Armenian film director, screenwriter and producer. He was known for directing I Love the Sound of the Kalachnikov It Reminds Me of Tchaikovsky (2001) and Picnic in Gaza (2016).
Born in Villeurbanne-Lyon, France, in 1965, Khazarian is a French film-maker of Armenian descent. His parents, first generation Armenians born in France, met in Lyon and married. Fascinated by Bertolt Brecht, Khazarian directed his first play: “Fear and Misery of the Third Reich” at 16, performing at the Lycée National du Parc in Lyon; and in doing so he was very first of his generation to receive funding from this secular French institution in over twenty years. Khazarian left high school a year earlier to study in the United States, combining theatre, art and languages in Norway High School Community, Iowa.
During his first three graduate years of studying in both France and Spain - in Seville at facultad de ciencas economicas y empressariales -, Khazarian combined art and languages. Gaining academic recognition both inland and abroad, he entered a top- ranking higher education establishment - Grande Ecole: School of Higher Studies in Information and Communication Sciences at the Pantheon – CELSA - at the Sorbonne, and graduated two years later receiving Summa cum Laude (first class honours) for his postgraduate work at 25.
Despite his desire that his son should pursue a career in international corporate media consulting, his evangelist father introduced him to an Armenian shelter foundation, in the hopes of helping Khazarian junior to become a director. Soon commissioned by a French NGO, ‘S.E.L’, he directed and produced his first documentary series and promotional video, introduced by Jean-Marc Barr, for the Armenian orphans of post-earthquake survival of 1989.
The following year, Khazarian was commissioned by the Bullukian Foundation to accompany a humanitarian initiative to the war zone of Nagorno-Karabakh. Although commissioned as a war correspondent, Khazarian obtained additional funding to produce the first part of a feature film, shot in Super 16, which six years later became his first feature achievement: I Love the Sound of the Kalachnikov It Reminds Me of Tchaikovsky. Upon returning from the region, Khazarian’s perception of investigative journalism began to shift. Until 1997, Khazarian combined personal visual archive research and experimental filmmaking alongside, the distribution and promotion of Point du Jour press agency documentary catalogue. Becoming more fascinated by 80’s and 90’s English filmmakers – Frears, Scott, Greenaway, Loach, Ivory, Gillian, Leigh, Boyle, Winterbottom... - he soon chose to continue his work in London where he completes his film in 1999. Between 1998-2002, Khazarian first worked as media consultant for The New York Times’ TV and film office, then following his boss, nomination in New York, he was appointed International Director of the New York Times TV and Film until September 11, when he resigned his position and decided to become independent.
Beginning in 2003, Khazarian created PVK-Pictures, a fully self-funded independent film production company, and dedicated himself to developing new projects and filming techniques, spending four years experimenting. The resulting scripts, video installations, short films, performances and production efforts inexorably lead to his writing, producing and directing the feature Picnic in Gaza (2013). A Film spanning three continents, across nine countries, it marks a bridge between his art-house roots and experimental fiction, with a tale of four westerners embarking unknowingly on a course to oblivion.
His first film, I Love the Sound of the Kalachnikov It Reminds Me of Tchaikovsky, was selected in the 2001 Rotterdam Film Festival.[1][2] and was soon nominated in 19 international film festivals, receiving 4 international awards, 12 international selections and 6 international competitions including :
The film remained self-sustaining on the festival circuit for over six years thereafter till 2006.