The Armenian Film Society recently announced it will open a new headquarters with support from the city of Glendale.
The nonprofit organization plans to host screenings, workshops and community events at the new AFS site, located on 116 and 118 W. California Ave in downtown Glendale, which will house a microcinema and podcasting booth.
Founder and CEO of the Armenian Film Society, Armen Karaoghlanian, said he and his wife Mary created the nonprofit about 10 years ago out of “passion and necessity,” as they were constantly in search of films that reflect their history, culture and community.
Karaoghlanian said they realized there wasn’t a space where films telling the Armenian experience were being showcased, celebrated and discussed. He added that they sought to connect Armenian filmmakers and cinema with audiences and the global film community.
“We always hoped AFS could grow into something much larger — a community, a platform and a movement, so seeing how far it has come is both humbling and energizing for what’s ahead,” Karaoghlanian said.
Karaoghlanian and his wife have grown the film society over the years while working full time jobs. Over time, the pair made it a “full time effort” and became interested in finding an office space.
An opportunity arose for AFS when the city was looking for a nonprofit that was connected to the community to lease the space on West California Avenue, and create a cultural center with programming centered around the arts, according to Karaoghlanian.
The Glendale City Council later approved the AFS to use the city-owned space, which Karaoghlanian credited to the organization’s outreach efforts in the community, including hosting more than 250 events throughout the city.
AFS’ focus, Karaghlanian said, has always been to engage the community with film and art, but the organization’s desire has been to develop a creative and cultural center to host intimate gatherings and offer programming.
AFS will be launching programs and initiatives designed to help mentor and create opportunities for youth and anyone interested in learning about film and art, something the group has always been interested in doing but wasn’t able fulfill without having a front-facing center.
“It’s important for us … not just to showcase films and create these like great networking opportunities, but also to be on the other side where we’re actually helping kind of usher in this next generation of storytellers,” he said.
AFS plans on developing their own film school curriculum with a schedule of workshops and master classes, which will be open to the public.
In July, AFS held its first workshop with Emmy Award-winning actor and writer, director, and star of “Amerikats,” Michael Goorjian.
Karaoghlanian said during the two weeklong, hands-on filmmaking workshop, participants collaborated to create a short film under the direction of Goorjian. AFS plans on hosting a screening of the film, which will be open to the public, later this year.
“The focus here is to be able to create opportunities for folks in this city and beyond the city, and really kind of put Glendale on the map … at the center around film,” Karaoghlanian said.
The founder said AFS’ new headquarters is an expansion of what the nonprofit started in 2015.
AFS spent its first 10 years engaging with the community through events, and now, Karaoghlanian said the organization wants to help cultivate film projects from the ground up by producing films.
“That comes from the desire to be really on the front end of things and actually help projects get made, whether it’s our own projects, or help other folks through our scholarships and grants to be able to have them realize their project,” he said.
The center’s new microcinema, an intimate 500-square-foot screening room, will include 10 to 20 lounge seats and a state of the art projection system.
Karaoghlanian said he knows firsthand how important spaces like microcinemas are to the film community. Filmmakers need a theater to screen their films without spending thousands to rent it out.
“I can’t tell you how many times I or filmmaker friends need a space … to watch a cut of our movie with our crew, or just do a test screening for some of the people that were involved in the film. Renting an actual theater is quite expensive, as you can imagine, and it’s not always in the budget… and sometimes you don’t really need a 50 seat or 100 seat theater,” he said.
AFS was approved for the space in September 2024, but Karaoghlanian said it took the organization some time to start renovating.
Karaoghlanian said organization is aiming to host a grand opening for its new headquarters later this year. For now, the nonprofit will be announcing programs one by one as they’re created and plan on rolling out a full calendar of events, classes and workshops early next year.
