Antisocial Distancing

A documentary film by Arman Yeritsyan and Mkrtich Tonoyan

Arman Yeritsyan – Director
Mkrtich Tonoyan – Creative Producer
Mikayel Nshanyan – Composer, sound
Narek Nazaryan – Cinematography, sound, editing
Armen Baghinyan – Editing
Mkhitar Serobyab – Cinematography, camera

Reflection on “Antisocial Distancing” in the Era of Covid-19

Antisocial Distancing explores the clash of Covid-19 and the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan that started on the 27th September, 2020, when Azerbaijani army attacked Nagorno Karabakh. Addressing the concept of ‘social distance’, the film reflects the conflict between pandemic restrictions policy; Armenia’s traditional, cultural and social habits; and the disaster of war. For locations in the world gripped in the crisis of conflict, the risk of Covid-19 infection paled in the face of a greater threat.

Everything in life can be seen through the lens of territories of existence. Armenian society operates within a historical culture of social closeness. The act of social distancing resonates deeply as an anti-social act, absurd almost in its disruption of habitual ways of being and the norms of daily living that shape a sense of collective community. Using original footage and archival materials, Antisocial Distancing addresses the experience of the pandemic within a culture where social closeness is valued above the notion of personal space, in the context of daily life and the trauma of war. 

— Mkrtich Tonoyan, August 2021